Nine cllrs in St Patrick’s Day exodus to US and UK

A total of nine councillors from Meath County Council will be leaving the country for St Patrick's Day to take part in festivities in New York and London. The council Cathaoirleach, Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher, will lead a delegation of four councillors to New York, while four other councillors will attend the St Patrick's Day Parade in London. The council has a budget of €10,000 for foreign travel and its protocol committee, which met recently, decided that the council should be represented in the two cities. They will be travelling at the invitation of Meath emigrant societies. It is expected that the councillors will be accompanied in each city by at least one council official. Council official Martin Rogers' report on the decision of the protocol committee to send councillors overseas next month was proposed, seconded and agreed at the February meeting of the council on Monday. When the matter was raised at the meeting of the council on Monday, Fine Gael Cllr Catherine Yore said that she felt that, in the current economic climate, councillors going on these visits should pay their own way. It is the normal practice of the council that councillors are nominated for the trips by their own parties or groupings. Although independent members have participated in St Patrick's Day festivities abroad, they are not expected to nominate any members for this year's visits. Trim Town Council is expected to stick with its policy established last year when a decision was made that councillors attending the celebrations in New York or London would pay their way from their own pockets. Cllr Gerard Reilly represented the council in New York last year and Cllr Vincent McHugh was in London. Town council leas-cathaoirleach Cllr James O'Shea said yesterday (Tuesday) that, as far as he knew, there was no money available from their budget for foreign travel. “If we are going, it will be at our own expense,†he said. Meath County Council said it would not know until this weekend the names of any councillors travelling to either the US or UK.