“Unfair and ridiculous” and a “having a personal go” at a potential rival at the next general election is how the Mayor of Galway has responded to criticisms of him by Independent councillor Catherine Connolly.
This week Cllr Connolly accused Mayor Michael J Crowe of having a “conflict of interest” in chairing a discussion on rental accommodation schemes at Monday’s city council meeting, when he is also the owner of a number of rental properties in the city.
“For the Mayor,” said Cllr Connolly, “who is in receipt of income from the substantial number of houses he has under the existing Rental Accommodation Scheme to declare he had no conflict of interest, and to praise short and long term leasing schemes, is nothing short of appalling.”
She regards the Mayor’s position as “utterly comprised” and has called on him to “confirm as a matter of urgency” that he will not “participate in any further council decisions” on the Government’s leasing proposals for local authorities.
However Mayor Crowe has no intention of agreeing to this and he has called Cllr Connolly’s remarks “unfair and ridiculous” and he accused her of “having a personal go at me as she fears I may be a candidate in the next election and a rival to her”.
Mayor Crowe feels he has no conflict of interest and that he declared all his property holdings to City Hall in order to be “transparent and because it was the right thing to do”.
“At Monday’s meeting, the city manager and council officials told me that I had gone beyond what was required when I made my declarations about my properties and that I had no conflict of interest on this matter,” he told the Galway Advertiser.
“Councillor Connolly’s remarks are populist in the current climate as these days it’s almost a sin to have property, but I bought these properties before I entered the council in 2004.”
The rental accommodation schemes have drawn criticism from some councillors who feel they will not provide tenants with security of tenure. The Mayor argues that the “winner” in such schemes will be the tenants.
“They will have a security of tenure they would not enjoy in the private market,” he said. “What has happened before was that the Department of Social Protection was paying tenants directly, so often what happened was that if a tenant got €500, a landlord might charge them €550.
“Under the new scheme, the Department pays the landlord directly so tenants can save at least €50 a month. Therefore if there are 600 properties in the rental accommodation scheme, that could mean a combined saving of €30,000
