Pádraig Conneely was in no mood to hear City Hall officials claim they did a good job in responding to the water shortages experienced over Christmas, saying their explanations “would do Comical Ali proud”.
At Monday’s city council meeting, the council’s director of service for infrastructure, Ciarán Hayes, presented councillors with a report on City Hall’s handling of the severe cold weather and water shortages over December.
Mr Hayes said the council’s call centre was fully manned throughout Christmas and that 66 per cent of calls were answered. For after hour emergencies, 73 per cent “received a first time resolution” to queries and there was “immediate assistance over the phone”.
The report said that internal communications “worked well” and so did the after hours service. It also said that there was daily consultation with the Mayor and city manager, constant updates on Twitter and the council’s own website.
Independent councillor Catherine Connolly had recently described City Hall’s handling of the situation as “simply not good enough” and she said the city council’s website “was not updated in any timely or comprehensive manner”.
At the meeting, many councillors seemed to take a similar view, with some privately calling the report “a wonderful endorsement of the council by the council themselves”.
Fine Gael councillor Pádraig Conneely said the report would have made “Comical Ali proud”, in reference to the former Iraqi information minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, whose claims on television that Saddam Hussein was winning the war, while the US tanks could be seen behind him, taking over the streets of Baghdad, made him an international figure of fun.
“You know something Director, you would do Comical Ali proud,” Cllr Conneely said, drawing uproarious laughs from the other councillors. “You’re not living in the real world. That report is only propaganda and is not accurate. A lot of the time it was just answering machines with information that was two to three days old. Not even Max Clifford could put a good spin on it!”
