The Fine Gael party in Castlebar has not made any deal with Fianna Fáil councillor Blackie Gavin to get him to support former town councillor Kevin Guthrie’s appointment to a vacant post on Mayo VEC, according to Cllr Ger Deere. The post, which was vacated by Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston when she resigned from the VEC in March, was filled by former Mayor of Castlebar, Kevin Guthrie, on Tuesday night when he beat fellow nominee Tony Deffley by five votes to four in council chamber. “I can categorically deny that any deal has been done with Cllr Gavin in relation to him supporting Kevin Guthrie for the post in the VEC,” Cllr Deere said. “He made up his own mind in relation to it and thinks Kevin Guthrie is the best person for the position.”
Cllr Heston, who resigned from her post in March, was a strong advocate for Mr Deffely to be given a place on the VEC, and on Tuesday night continued that support by breaking the party whip and voting for Mr Deffley when a vote was taken in the chamber. Cllr Heston will now face disciplinary action from the party for breaking the whip, Cllr Deere told the Mayo Advertiser. “There are internal party procedures in place that will be carried out by the national party executive and she is aware of that,” he said. “But she will be supporting the party on other matters, and this was a single issue that she felt very strongly about and she made her feelings on it very clearly known.”
Cllr Gavin, who is also a member of Mayo County Council, was a very strong advocate himself for Mr Deffley to be given a position on the VEC back in January when the county council was filling positions on it and voted for him in a vote taken in the county council which saw Fine Gael nominee Pat Kilbane elected to the VEC by 18 votes to nine, by the elected members of Mayo County Council. Yet little over four months later it was Cllr Gavin, the solitary Fianna Fáil member of Castlebar Town Council, who proposed Mr Guthrie’s nomination which was seconded by Fine Gael councillor Brendan Henaghan.
Earlier in the meeting, Labour councillor Harry Barrett proposed Mr Deffley for the position. This was seconded by Sinn Féin councillor Therese Ruane and supported by Independent councillor Frank Durcan. All three of them spoke about the qualities of Mr Deffley who has been involved in education for all his adult life and was a former president of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland as well as being a former member of the VEC. Cllr Durcan also told the meeting that Fine Gael was turning into Fianna Fáil by appointing their own people to positions rather than the best person for the job. He also asked, “Are we just electing people to get a seat on the gravy train for allowances?” Cllr Eugene McCormack hit back at Cllr Durcan’s statement, telling the meeting that Mr Guthrie will be entitled to no travelling allowances as he lives in Castlebar and the VEC does not pay expenses to people who live in Castlebar to attend the meetings which are held in the town.
When the vote was taken Mayor Michael Kilcoyne voted with councillors Gavin, Henaghan, McCormack, and Deere in supporting Kevin Guthrie, while councillors Barrett, Durcan, Ruane, and Heston, breaking the party whip, voted in favour of Mr Deffley’s appointment.
Before the vote was taken town manager Seamus Granahan asked the members if they had read the legal advice supplied to them in relation to the request by the VEC that the council nominates a member being cognisant of the gender balance requirement. All the councillors said they had, but wished to push forward with the two nominations who were both male. Mr Granahan warned the members that VEC may come back to them again in relation to this.
