LOCAL councillors have been lambasted for their lack of interest in matters to do with the environment following a poor turnout at a meeting in County Hall.
The monthly meeting of the Environment Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) took place at Limerick City and County Council chambers in Dooradoyle this Monday morning.
The committee membership includes 16 councillors, of which only six were in attendance. These included Committee Chairman Cllr Jerome Scanlan (FG), Cllr Elena Secas (LAB), Cllr Malachy McCreesh (SF), Cllr Paul Keller (SOL), Cllr Brigid Teefy (IND) and Cllr Kieran O’Hanlon (FF), who only attended briefly.
As eight elected members were needed to make a quorum, the meeting had to be deemed an unofficial gathering due to the absence of more than half of the councillors on the committee. Presentations on the work of the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLA), Energy Efficiency Improvements and a report on Team Limerick Clean Up went ahead despite the poor turnout.
Cllr Jerome Scanlan afterwards described the poor showing as “disappointing”.
“This is the second occasion we’ve had this difficulty. None of the councillors have come in. The last day the meeting was delayed half an hour because we had difficulty getting a quorum,” he said.
“We had four councillors present and, in fairness, they stayed for the entire meeting but you need eight for a quorum. It is disappointing; we had three excellent presentations here today. A very important presentation on waste and the implications of waste and cost for the local authority and yet we couldn’t have an official meeting.”
Of the six external representatives from local businesses and the community on the Environment SPC, only one turned up.
The Environment meetings were recently moved from City Hall to Dooradoyle to accommodate representatives who had difficulties getting into the city.
Cllr Scanlan said just two local representatives passed on apologies for their absence from the meeting.
by Alan Jacques
