New Council employee directive following Lynn investigation

DIRECTIVE County Manager, Peter Hynes.

New Council employee directive following Lynn investigation


Anton McNulty

Mayo County Council employees will have to inform their superiors of any interest they have in lands which are the subject of a notice of motion scheme following a directive from the County Manager.
Peter Hynes issued the directive to all Council employees in relation to procedures to be followed following the investigation into alleged breaches of code of conduct involving a Council employee.
The circumstances of the directive arose following the investigation into allegations made against senior executive engineer, Kieran Lynn, who approached members of Mayo County Council for an allocation of notice of motion funds to have a bend located on his land removed. This matter subsequently became the subject of an Independent Council investigation, a Standards in Public Office Commission investigation as well as court proceedings.
“This direction is given in order to ensure that proposals under the notice of motion scheme, councillors special allocation scheme, councillors community fund or the local improvement scheme are carried out in an open and transparent manner, and to ensure that employees are protected from vexatious or unfounded allegations in relation to these schemes,” stated Mr Hynes in his directive.
The Independent Council investigation and the SIPO investigation found that Mr Lynn contravened Section 168 of the Local Government Act and acted in disregard of the Code of Conduct for employees.
Following these reports, Mr Hynes issued a directive to all staff setting out the procedures to be followed when notice of motion, special allocation and local improvement scheme funds are being expended on. The directive was circulated to councillors at yesterdays (Monday) monthly meeting of Mayo County Council.
The directive states that ‘under no circumstances are you, or any other person acting on your behalf, to request any elected member of Mayo County Council to allocate monies under the notice of motion scheme, councillors special allocation scheme, councillors community fund or the local improvement scheme funds in respect of any project where you have an interest in lands which are the subject of the project’.
It also states that ‘if you have any interest in any land which becomes the subject of a proposal’ of these schemes, ‘you must inform your supervisor and Director of Services in writing of your interest in the land within seven days of you, or any person acting on your behalf, being approached in connection with the scheme’.