Following former Wicklow County Council manager Eddie Sheehy being ordered to appear before the High Court this week, local councillor Tom Fortune was refused at Monday’s WCC meeting to read the following statement.
The court appearance follows allegations that Sheehy was “up to his neck in corruption” after a possible cover-up of the setting up of a private company to benefit from WCC contracts for illegal dump clean-ups.
Outrageous.
Chairman, I wish to make following statement:
I will be attending all County Council meetings under protest.
Back in 2014 I spoke in the Council Chamber about what I believed was Organisational Corruption within Wicklow County Council. At the time I explained what I was talking about, it is a matter of public record.
In 2012/2013, I voted on three different occasions ‘no confidence’ in the County Manager of that time. I again stated six reasons why I was doing this; it is also a matter of public record. The Inner Sanctum of the council ensured this ‘no confidence’ vote was defeated. This matter has never gone away right up to the present day, with the Inner Sanctum continuing to protect and stop sanctions that should be taking place from a members’ perspective.
As we speak, there is a court action against WCC taking place in the High Court before Justice Richard Humphreys. This has been covered all this week in The Irish Times newspaper and The Wicklow Times. The costs of this, it seems, will or could be in the millions of euro, and we are here today discussing a crisis in housing because we have no money. I believe this to be a scandal.
There continues to be serious questions for WCC that need to be answered in regard to Corporate Governance, Transparency, Accountability – basically, how Wicklow County Council is and has been managed. Recently a suggestion was made to have a meeting in January to discuss council meetings; the purpose of this meeting was to challenge three councillors who had asked legitimate questions in regard to the operation of council meetings. I wrote back agreeing to this meeting and I proposed eleven additional points to the ones suggested for discussion. Needless to remark, there has been silence regarding this meeting since.
Recently, a number of business people have formally complained about Wicklow County Council to the department and the Minister responsible for Local Authorities.
So until there is a plan in place to sort all of this, I will operate in my role of Wicklow County Councillor under protest.
Cllr Tom Fortune.