Mayo general election candidate under fire for 'misleading' comments

A general election candidate has been accused of misleading the public and of using the Mayo county council chamber as a platform for electioneering and grandstanding.

Aontú councillor and general election candidate Paul Lawless yesterday came under sustained criticism from a number of his fellow councillors, who accused of populism and electioneering at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council.

The criticism arose from comments made by Cllr Lawless about the potential €700,000 cost of refurbishing the council chamber in Áras an Chontae. The cost of refurbishing the chamber was discussed at a workshop in July, and the Knock-based councillor claimed he was the only councillor to oppose it.

Drawing comparison with the Leinster House bike shed, which has come under universal fire for its €336,000 price tag, Cllr Lawless yesterday dubbed the council chamber refurbishment a reckless vanity product.

Cllr Lawless’s comments, which were made during a discussion on whether to vary the Local Property Tax (LPT), sparked disbelief and anger among his fellow councillors.

‘Propaganda’

Ballinrobe-based councillor Damien Ryan, who forwarded a motion that the rate of the LPT remain the same, said that the refurbishment of the council chamber was nothing to do with the item on the agenda, and he accused Cllr Lawless of electioneering.

“That is grandstanding and electioneering and nothing else, and it is not focused on the facts. It is grandstanding and populism... I will debate with anyone all day long, but that is completely at variance with what I proposed,” he said at yesterday’s meeting.

Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke accepted that the Knock-based councillor was new in the role, but he accused him of misleading the chamber.

“It is electioneering time and maybe because Cllr Lawless is a new councillor, we have to grant him some leeway,” he said.

“I have been in this chamber for a long time and have sat with people on both sides of me who were ambitious and went on to become TDs and ministers and even a taoiseach. The one thing they all stuck to was facts and figures and the truth. Don’t mislead… That is the one thing I can say about the elected people who have gone before me. They have been honest with the people and honest in this chamber.

Addressing Cllr Lawless directly, Cllr Burke added: “It is your second or third meeting [and] you think you can put out a certain propaganda because you may have an intention to stand in an election. Be honest and don’t mislead people and don’t ever do that in this chamber, I would advise you.”

‘Populist’

Earlier in the meeting, Cllr Lawless claimed the potential cost of the refurbishment was another example of ‘reckless spending’ and compared it to the €336,000 spent on bike shelter at Leinster House. He described it as a vanity project and said he would oppose it.

“I understand there is a proposal to refurbish this room which is about 90 square metres at a cost of €700,000… is this really what we are increasing taxes for in this county? Is it to pay for vanity projects, when the reality is it could be spent so much better. I was utterly shocked that I was the only councillor to outright oppose it. I do not think it is a priority at this time,” he said.

Cllr Lawless denied suggestions that he had misled anyone with his comments, but Cllr Donna Sheridan claimed that she had raised the costs involved in the refurbishment at the workshop.

“If you come in and make statements, make sure they are factually correct. If you recall I did raise the issue of the possible projected price of this chamber, and you came in after me and said ‘I agree with Cllr Sheridan’.

“I raised that issue at the workshop too, and to say no other councillor did was factually incorrect. Unless I was hallucinating that is how it happened and I did come in before you on that. I don’t need to stand up and be populist. If you are coming in here please be factually correct,” she added.

‘Irresponsible’

Fine Gael councillor Jarlath Munnelly pointed out that there are a number of issues with the council chamber regarding disability access and audibility problems, but no decision has been made regarding its refurbishment. He accused Cllr Lawless of trying to create outrage amongst the public for political gain.

“To take a comment from a council workshop and turn it into a press release is irresponsible because it gives the impression to the public we are wasting money and we don’t care.

“A few facts need to be put on the record here and you used this to spin before an election and create outrage. We all have to do our best to make the council a better place but picking comments for electioneering purposes is irresponsible,” he claimed.

‘Right decisions’

Cllr Lawless defended his comments claiming he never misled anyone with his comments and he was not being populist.

“The idea that there is electioneering and propaganda going on here is absolutely wrong,” he argued.

“There is no populism going on here and I want to be very clear on it. I am not interested in career politics and have no interest in being here my lifetime, but if I feel I am doing the right thing I will stand up and say it.

“The idea from some councillors I was misleading the people and I want to refute that robustly. There was a proposal in front of us to refurbish this chamber and I did speak out against it and I do oppose it. It was raised at a meeting and there was talk we would do it. That is the truth.”

However, a number of the other councillors hit back saying there was no proposal at the workshop, and Chief Executive Kevin Kelly confirmed that this was the case.

“I made it very clear on the day that those lists of possible actions are behind us from a financial perspective. What we need to do is [determine] what are the elements of priority and decide what we can fund and what we want to do as a council over the course of the next five years. There are things we want to do but we can’t because of the funding, and it is important we take the right decisions at the right time,” he said.

Following the debate, the decision was taken by the council not to adjust the rate of the Local Property Tax, and it will remain the same as last year.