Councillor calls Ring’s questions ‘silly’

Councillor calls Ring’s questions ‘silly’


Anton McNulty

A MAYO county councillor has branded Mayo TD Michael Ring as ‘silly’ over a question he asked in the Dáil, and asked why the electorate continue to ‘elect silly people to the Dáil to ask silly questions’.
The comment was made by Independent councillor Harry Walsh, who was speaking at yesterday’s (Monday) meeting of the Ballinrobe Electoral Area Committee where he claimed that a question asked by Deputy Ring in the Dáil about flooding in south Mayo was ‘silly’ and a waste of time and money because they already knew the answers.
During the meeting Fine Gael councillor Patsy O’Brien said he was disappointed that the National Parks and Wildlife Service were holding up the release of funding for work on flood relief in the south Mayo area. He said money had been allocated in the National Programme of the Office of Public Works and a deadline of January 22 had been set, which was ‘well over’.
Cllr O’Brien said the issue was brought up in the Dáil but they got ‘the same old answers and it was simply not good enough’, and called for something to be done. He was supported by Fianna Fáil councillor Damien Ryan and by Cllr Walsh who said he could not understand the delay. However, Cllr Walsh queried the reason for bringing the issue up in the Dáil, saying the question was ‘silly’ when they all knew the answer.
“It was exactly the same [answer] as what we were told. Why did the Dáil deputy ask the silly question when we know the answers. Why do the people of this county still elect silly people to the Dáil to ask silly questions?” he wondered.
Cllr O’Brien took issue with Cllr Walsh’s comment saying the question was not silly and that it was important to show the people of affected areas of south Mayo how they were moving forward with the issue. He added that they used the Dáil questions but didn’t get the answers. Cllr Ryan said the answers to the parliamentary questions were no different to what the councillors had previously been told.