“Truly extraordinary if not bizarre” is how Independent councillor Catherine Connolly has described Labour councillor Billy Cameron’s recent condemnation of her for voting with the right wing parties in supporting the Galway City Council budget.
Cllr Connolly said that at the meeting, Mayor Michael J Crowe tabled a specific motion on behalf of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Independent ex-PDs, indicating the changes they wished to make to City Hall’s draft budget, and how they would source the money to fund these changes.
In response, Labour’s Galway West candidate Derek Nolan presented Labour’s own proposals, which Cllr Connolly said would involve reducing the roads budget in order to fund the overall package.
“I immediately indicated my difficulty with this proposal given the current unsatisfactory state of our roads, footpaths, and drains and given that various projects to improve pedestrian/school safety were already in jeopardy,” said Cllr Connolly.
“Furthermore, rather than having a divisive vote on the matter I specifically proposed that the Mayor adjourn the meeting for 15 minutes to allow a consensus to emerge. This proposal was seconded by Cllr Ollie Crowe and agreed.”
Cllr Connolly alleges that the Labour councillors “unequivocally confirmed to me that they had no interest in a consensus budget”. Labour put forward its budget but this was defeated.
“The Mayor then tabled his motion including the changes asked for by myself,” said Cllr Connolly. “This motion was passed by the majority of councillors without impacting on the roads budget. Most extraordinary of all however, when the budget itself was amended and was then put to the council there was not a dissenting voice in the chamber.”
Cllr Connolly said “accusations of hypocrisy” by Cllr Cameron “ring truly hollow” and she alleged that Labour’s “approach to this particular budget” was “an empty grandstanding exercise with the forthcoming general election in sight”.
