Senators ‘must have necks of rubber’

Edwin McGreal

A Mayo county councillor has lashed out at members of the Oireachtas sending him Christmas cards.
Cllr Christy Hyland (Ind) was speaking at Mayo County Council’s Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) December meeting.
“All over the country we are seeing how many people are homeless and yet the amount of Christmas cards coming in my door this week from members of the Oireachtas around the country is shocking,” said Cllr Hyland.
“People are sleeping on the streets and then you have members of the Oireachtas sending out Christmas cards all around the country using taxpayers’ money ... they must have necks of rubber to be sending me and other councillors Christmas cards,” he added.
“They probably printed it on this new printer that’s costing €2 million,” quipped Cllr Michael Kilcoyne (Ind).
Cllr Neil Cruise (FG) was feeling left out.
“I don’t know if there’s an underlying message or if I’m out of favour because I’ve received none,” he said.
“Tell the truth,” responded Cllr Hyland.
“I always tell the truth here,” responded Cllr Cruise.
Speaking to The Mayo News after the meeting, Cllr Hyland said all the cards were from senators ahead of Seanad elections next year and argued that he was likely to get more cards than his Fine Gael colleague as an independent councillor.