Councillors knock Noel in a rules protest walk-out

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Noel Larkin’s year in the mayoral hot seat is fast descending into farce. For many – and possibly even for the man himself – the day he hands over the baton as First Citizen can’t come quick enough.

You can make some allowances for the first-time Councillor who is still learning the ropes. But he’s in the chair now for the guts of 11 months and the Independent novice still appears to be making it up as he goes along.

A nice guy Noel may be, but his chairmanship of meetings is awful.

Without structure, lacking purpose and direction, Council meetings on his watch have been chaotic, as Noel struggles to maintain order.

Even members of the ruling pact, who voted to give him the chains of office, are privately questioning the wisdom of that decision.

As for the Opposition; well they’ve lost all faith in him altogether.

The simmering friction between Noel and two members – Ollie Crowe and Collette Connolly – boiled over at the latest farcical instalment at City Hall.

Ollie, and Fianna Fáil colleague, Peter Keane, staged a walk-out at a special meeting, to protest the scheduling of that meeting.

Following them out the gap of the Chamber was Independent Collette, who described Noel as possibly the “worst mayor” of her 11 years on the Council.

Her reason for leaving? “It’s very simple – I don’t believe that that special meeting was legal,” said Collette, who will seek legal advice.

“The mayor talks about respect. You have to give respect before you receive it; you have to earn respect. He has no respect for me. None,” she fumed.

Ollie believes Noel is running roughshod over procedures. The Council agreed to dedicate an entire meeting to Standing Orders, which is the rules by which the Council is governed; and mid-July was pencilled in.

“It was then announced on Galway Bay FM – before elected members got notice – that the mayor was convening a special meeting to discuss standing orders. You can’t do that. You can’t just call a special meeting, to discuss something that we’ve already agreed will be discussed at a meeting in July. It’s madness. This isn’t how to run our city,” he railed.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.