Naughton told: apologise or you won’t be the next Mayor

Date Published: 23-May-2011

By Dara Bradley

City councillor Hildergarde Naughton may well have won the Fine Gael nomination – after party headquarters intervened – for the next Galway City Mayor, but she is not a ‘shoo-in’ to become first citizen this June.

Several members of the ruling pact on Galway City Council – which includes Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independents – have expressed private and public reservations to the Sentinel yesterday about voting for Cllr Naughton.

Cllr Naughton will be the Fine Gael nominee, after she fended off an unprecedented political manoeuvre from party colleague Cllr Pádraig Conneely, who attempted to become mayor for the second time in four years after agreeing a separate pact with the third Fine Gael representative on the Council, rookie Frank Fahy.

But it is not clear whether the current FF/FF/Ind pact will hold firm – this week, Cllr Peter Keane (FF), said he would not vote for Cllr Naughton unless she “retracts” and “apologises” for the “hurtful” comments and allegations she levelled against other elected representatives during the course of a debate on the City Development Plan.

Cllr Keane said that Cllr Naughton had made comments that her colleagues on the Council were “in the pockets of developers” and were “doing the bidding” for developers when rezoning lands in the city.

Unless these comments are withdrawn and she apologises to him for making them, the solicitor said he would not be voting for Cllr Naughton to become Mayor.“

Another councillor in the pact, who preferred not to be named, said Cllr Naughton had wrongfully tarred all elected representatives with the one brush when she made her remarks about the links between members of the Council and developers.

This councillor has not yet decided on whether to vote for Cllr Naughton, and may abstain unless the comments are clarified or retracted. Cllr Naughton needs eight votes to win and there are nine involved in the pact.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel