COUNCILLORS were left perplexed when legal advice sought from the Council in July, in relation to nominations to boards of DAC companies, was still unavailable.
Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan asked at the opening of this week’s full meeting of Limerick City and County Council (LCCC) for an update on the legal counsel sought on Mayor John Moran’s interpretation of the sole council representation to these boards.
During the summer, Mayor Moran told council members that he felt the way board members are appointed is not necessarily consistent with governance code for state agencies. He also stated that he was trying to find a middle ground to that as the shareholder of LCCC.
“It is the prerogative of the shareholder to choose directors that can best serve that company. In order to do that, I think it is appropriate that we actually take into account the skills of the various people. They should only serve on those boards if they can bring specific knowledge,” he told council members back in July.
Cllr Sheahan was informed this week that the Council has sought advice but due to the “level of detail and the intricacy of the issues under consideration” they are still awaiting written direction on this matter.
Cllr Sheahan could not understand how after nine weeks there is still no answer to this issue, which raised its head at the very first full local authority meeting with the Directly Elected Mayor (DEM) and brought them to an impasse.
“I’m kind of a little bit perplexed,” he told the council executive.
“I didn’t envisage it would take that long. Is the legislation around it that complicated that it takes nine weeks to get an answer?”
Cllr Liam Galvin (FG) was far from impressed.
“To be honest, it’s not good enough. It’s been two and a half months since the last meeting to get legal advice. Who’s paying the piper here?
“I’m sure this legal team are getting paid, and if they aren’t, let’s go and find a legal team that will give us advice. This is of utmost importance to us,” Cllr Galvin insisted.
Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Collins asked if there had been any meetings of these boards since they last discussed this issue earlier in the summer.
Mayor Moran said that as far as he knew they have been having meetings.
“Based on that information, I don’t think they should be having meetings because if the information we’ve been given is incorrect, those meetings are illegal, in my view. I’d ask that no further meetings take place until we get full clarity,” Cllr Collins said.
Cllr Stephen Keary claimed what was now unfolding was “a deliberate attempt on the part of the executive and the mayor to withhold this information”.
“If you were doing your job properly, you have expensive legal counsel engaged on a year round basis, and surely it is at your disposal whenever you want them. If you literally got off your backsides and pose the question to the relevant people, you would have an answer in 10 days,” he suggested.
Director General of LCCC, Pat Daly refuted Cllr Keary’s claims and said there are some technical issues raised that they want to deal with.
“If it is so complex, how does the mayor think he is so right? There’s something wrong here,” Cllr Galvin hit out.
