Following the breakthrough made by the United Left Alliance (ULA) in the general election which saw the ULA return 5 TDs a number of events have been organised or are being planned in the coming months intended to build the ULA as a national force as a step towards it developing into a new party. Below are a list of meetings planned so far. Further meetings are being planned for Wexford and Gorey later this month & in mid to late May in Dublin North East, Drogheda, Waterford, Dublin Mid West, Galway, Tralee, Dundalk, Celbridge, Ballyfermot, South West Inner City, Dublin North City, Nenagh, Letterkenny

Please note: If your area does not feature and you would like to organise a meeting do get in touch with us. Likewise if you want to assist in building for any of the above meetings in terms of putting up posters/leaflets and you do not know who to contact send us a mail to: [email protected]

To whom it may concern,

Re: Transparency, and the accountability which arises from transparency, in Local Government

We refer to the attendance of our representative, Mr Mark Fitzsimons, at the January meeting of Dundalk Town Council as an observer and wish to express our appreciation to the council for permitting his attendance.

Our principal reason for sending an observer to the meeting was to witness the conduct of the public’s affairs/finances by the Council. We had also raised concerns regarding a number of ethical issues with a Member of the Council, Councillor Morgan, but to which he had been unable to supply answers.

Our observer was shocked, as were we when he reported back to us, that Councillor Morgan’s questions were not only unanswered, but had not even been placed on the official agenda.

We attach a copy of Councillor Morgan’s request for answers to the questions and would appreciate an explanation for the Management’s failure/refusal to answer them, together with detailed written answers to the three questions, which go to the heart of transparency and accountability in local government, at your earliest possible convenience.

Regular readers may recall that recently we sent a letter to the town clerk, Frank Pentony, asking why he refused to place a question from Councilor Oliver Morgan on the agenda of the January town council meeting. The question asked about the legal position of the town council relating to a land zoning issue on the Lower Point road. Frank Pentony did not place the question or respond to our letter.

He did however, send an email to Councilor Morgan explaining his reasons for not allowing the questions. We have posted the email at the end of this article. In brief it states that the councilor’s question was dealt with at the December meeting, that the question would not be placed because it was hypothetical and that no hypothetical questions would ever be entertained in the counci meetings again.

People Before Profit Dundalk was shocked at the dictatorial tone of the response. We checked it out and have discovered that, according to the minutes of the December meeting, the question was not dealt with. Then we checked the Local Government Act 2001, the standing orders and and the code of conduct for councilors and nowhere could we find one sentence or clause giving Pentony the authority to stop a councilor placing a reasonable question on the agenda.

Frank Pentony’s excuse was that it was a hypothetical questions but this holds no water. Many questions, especially legal and planning questions, are hypothetical. A hypothetical question asks what if. Imagine a council not allowing questions like ‘ What if there is an accident, are the council liable?, or ‘ What if there is a high tide, will the land we are zoning flood?’ What if questions are the backbone of sensible and solid future planning and yet Frank Pentony has taken it upon himself to declare that from now on no elected officials shall be allowed to ask such questions at town council meetings.This is clearly unacceptable.