Councillor rounds on Sinn Fein counterpart at Trim meeting

Independent Trim councillor Phil Cantwell launched a stinging personal and political attack on Sinn Fein member of Trim Town Council, Cllr Caroline Lynch, last week. Cllr Cantwell described Cllr Lynch as 'Mark III, elected by nobody" and said that the council had been very tolerant of her and her party for a long time. Cllr Cantwell, at last week"s monthly meeting of Trim Town Council, said that her party and its members were the last people who should be telling everyone about people"s rights, data protection and policing committees. 'This council has been very tolerant of your party and we are sick of them. You cannot come in here and tell us how to run our meetings,' he said. Cllr Lynch is the third Sinn Fein member to sit on the present council, following the resignations of previous holders, Caroline Ni Loinsigh and Mags McGivern. The argument arose after Cllr Ray Butler criticised councillors going to the press to complain about council meetings being held 'in committee" (in private), a reference to Cllr Lynch. Cllr Butler said it was agreed at a previous meeting that certain items would be discussed 'in committee", and that no issue had been raised about this then. A subsequent council meeting to discuss CCTV in the town, a playground site and the town centre development also had been 'in committee". Cllr Lynch said she stood over everything she had said in relation to meetings, and that meetings held in private were no better than those held in public. Cllr Vincent McHugh said he had no problems with meetings being held 'in committee" as, often when they were held in public, people 'played to the gallery'. It was also possible that sensitive or commercial issues need to be discussed, he added. Cllr Jimmy Peppard criticised gallery politics and sexed-up press releases, while Cllr Robbie Griffith said the council always went 'into committee" to discuss delicate situations. Cllr Lynch said nobody has to be 'tolerant" of her party. 'I have been co-opted to a seat, and we"ll have to wait and see if I"m re-selected. I won"t apologise for the way I use the press,' she said. 'I"m here to do a job the same as everybody else.' She said the council was told that the issues to be discussed were commercially sensitive, yet some of the things discussed was not commercially sensitive. During a boisterous meeting, members also wanted to discuss staffing issues at Trim Swimming Pool, now slated for closure. Town manager Kevin Stewart told councillors that he would not be engaging in a debate and councillors should not be debating it. Mr Stewart said this matter was a staffing issue of Meath County Council, therefore the town council had no function. As councillors, the members had no function. And there was a well-established industrial relations process in place which would be used by Meath County Council, he said. He added that, if councillors wanted to debate the threatened redundancies, they could do so at the end of the meeting when the officials had left. Cllr Cantwell wanted to suspend standing orders to discuss the matter. Cllr McHugh suggested a letter to the county council expressing disappointment at the way it was being handled. Mr Stewart said he would bring a full report to the council on all issues relating to the operation of the new swimming pool and the tender process, but not the staffing issues. Councillors were angry with the way the staff at Trim Swimming Pool were told that they were being made redundant. A number of the staff from the Trim pool were in attendance observing the meeting.