A stalemate between Councillor Padraig Conneely and Galway City Council came to an end at a special meeting on Friday evening.
Councillor Conneely agreed with council officials to back down and end the six-week row which has seen work in the council chamber grind to a halt.
All business in the council chamber and on special committees of which Councillor Conneely is a member, had stalled since the spat between Councillor Conneely and city officials began.
Services at City Hall were withdrawn from him following comments he made within the chamber in February. Since then every meeting that Councillor Conneely has attended has been abandoned. The Fine Gael councillor interrupted each meeting and prevented any progress, demanding that services be reinstated to him.
At Friday evening’s special meeting Councillor Conneely agreed to withdraw the remarks, and let the meeting continue.
The order of Friday’s special meeting was to co-opt new members of the council to seats which were left vacant by successful Dáil candidates.
A full and somewhat confused public gallery, and families of the new councillors were left bemused for over an hour as Mayor Michael Crowe (just returned from Seattle ) demanded the stalemate come to a conclusion, and to let the meeting continue. “I will not preside over any meetings until these problems are resolved, the difficulties cannot and will not continue,” he said.
The mayor ordered a 20-minute adjournment in a desperate attempt to end the stalemate.
While the adjournment proved unsuccessful Mayor Crowe said, “Both parties have made some effort and movement, but a resolution still has not been made”.
He ordered a second adjournment of 10 minutes, to the objection of some councillors. Mayor Crowe confidently insisted on the second adjournment. “What I do may not be popular, but it is right,” he said.
Mayor Crowe returned to the council chamber for a second time, victorious, brandishing a statement written and signed by Councillor Conneely.
“Councillor Conneely withdraws all remarks, and has resolved all difficulties with council staff,” Mayor Crowe said.
There was no statement from any council officials on the matter, and Mayor Crowe stated there would be no further media comment on the issue.
Councillor Conneely did not comment on his retraction, and a joyous Mayor Crowe continued with the business at hand.
All work within the council chamber and the committees that Councillor Conneely sits on will now return to normal.
Following Councillor Conneely’s retraction city manager Joe O’Neill circulated a memorandum to council staff on Monday advising that all services had been restored to Councillor Conneely.
Meanwhile, the use of recording devices and smartphones by media, the public gallery and councillors, is to be monitored in the Council chamber after a recording of Cllr Conneely from a meeting last week was uploaded to the internet. The clip was circulated last week and was sent to this newspaper’s Facebook and Twitter pages on several occasions. However, it was quickly deleted as its broadcast contravened the use of recording equipment at local authority meetings.
