Unruly City Councillors set to be hit in the pocket

 Unruly and boisterous Councillors whose behaviour leads to Galway City Council meetings being abandoned will have their pay docked under new radical proposals being pushed through by Government.

 The reforming legislation to be enacted next February will give new powers to cut the allowances paid to Galway City Councillors, who are so unruly in the Council chamber they cause a meeting to be abandoned.

Attempts earlier this year at introducing similar rules locally were ruled out of order after legal advice but this national legislation will hit unruly Councillors in the pocket.

Under section 52 of the new Local Government Bill 2013, Councillors who are deemed to have caused the abandonment of meetings through their unruly behaviour will see an automatic 10% deduction in their annual allowance. The legislation also provides for the possibility of a 90% annual loss of remunerative privileges for repeat offenders in certain circumstances.

Earlier this year, Fianna Fáil Galway City Councillor Peter Keane proposed a change to standing orders – the rules of Council meetings – to include a provision to take money off any elected member who disrupts a meeting.

He argued in February to change standing order 42 so as to allow the local authority to suspend remuneration and privileges enjoyed by any unruly City Councillor who was deemed out-of-order at meetings, who had failed to abide by other standing orders and who refused to leave the Chamber. He won backing from his colleagues and the motion was carried by a majority of eight to seven but subsequent legal advice ruled out the change as it was deemed unconstitutional. 

However, this new Government legislation effectively backs Councillor Keane’s original stance on unruly behaviour, which has caused the abandonment of several meetings in recent years.

Yesterday Cllr Keane said he felt “vindicated” by the Government’s new bill. He said though he had some reservations about it he was “delighted the Government took on board my proposal on unruly behaviour.”

Cllr Keane added: “My proposal was never a proposal to gag Councillors but rather to focus the minds of those who are hell bent on causing trouble.”

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel