Council chief denies deliberately misleading councillors over refugee income

THE Chief Executive of Mayo County Council has denied deliberately misleading councillors on false information given at the July meeting and added what occurred won't happen again.

Chief Executive Kevin Kelly admitted at yesterday's monthly meeting that information he gave to a question on whether income and expenditure from Ukrainian refugees staying in Lough Lannagh Holiday village in Castlebar was budgeted was incorrect.

At the July meeting he informed Cllr Peter Flynn that the money was fully budgeted for but Cllr Flynn informed yesterday's meeting that he subsequently discovered it wasn't. He said the council had budgeted for €80,000 from Lough Lannagh in 2023 but it has now transpired that the council will make a €800,000 surplus from Ukrainian refugees staying in Lough Lannagh.

“The most worrying thing is we are wholly reliant on the executive to give us correct information. On two occasions you [Mr Kelly] clarified that it was fully budgeted for and it clearly wasn't.

“I really would question if this would have been made available for us if we didn't ask these questions a number of weeks ago. I am not sure if you deliberately set out to mislead us but you did mislead us at the time.

“I would like you to clarify the incorrect information at that council meeting in July in relation to the Ukrainian data which was not budgeted correctly and how we can avoid a scenario like this again. Ultimately as councillors, if we cannot rely on the information we receive from the executive we have a big issue between the executive and councillors and that will do any of us any favours,” he told the meeting.

'Good faith'

In response, Mr Kelly said he had answered the question from Cllr Flynn in good faith and denied deliberately misleading the chamber.

“Obviously there was no attempt from me to mislead the members and I always come into this chamber to answer questions in an open, frank and transparent manner. If I am going to be accused of misleading the chamber the only option for me is to say I will only answer questions I get advanced notice of so I can be sure I am giving the right answer. You cannot have it both ways,” he said.

Cllr Flynn rejected this, pointing out that the motion on Ukrainian accommodation was put before the council in March and did not agree that Mr Kelly was not aware of the issues.

“If you were not sure at the time it would have been a reasonable response that you will have to check it out. But you were absolutely clear on both occasions that it was budgeted in full. Given the constraints on all of us on budgets and getting money for anything here we have a scenario of a €710,000 windfall that we were never told about and then told it was fully budgeted for when it wasn't. That to me is a very serious issue given the constraints we are all working to,” Cllr Flynn responded.

Mr Kelly added that the information was provided to the best of his understanding of the approach to the budget and commented that 'it won't happen again'.

Director of Finances, Peter Duggan said that when the 2023 budget was being prepared last September and October it was not clear how sustainable the additional income from the refugee accommodation would be and they made decisions on the best information they had at the time.