Durcan rips up reprimand letter, while Condon tells him to ‘cop on’

Independent councillor Frank Durcan showed in no uncertain terms this week what he thought about a letter and a copy of the code of conduct for councillors, which he received from county secretary John Condon, reprimanding him for his actions at the previous meeting of the local authority. Walking from his seat in the chamber to the top bench, Cllr Durcan told the meeting, “You can do what you want with that (the letter) as far as I’m concerned, and the code,” as he started to tear the letter into small pieces before dropping the remains of it on front of the county secretary.

Cllr Durcan received the letter after he was told he was in breach of the code of conduct for councillors, when he raised the issue of the denial of his freedom of information request about retired members of staff in the council who had been re-employed by the council on contract basis. He had been told at that meeting he was in breach of the code by looking for preferential treatment by raising the issue in the chamber as a councillor, since he was the applicant for the request that was refused.

Kenny questions Minister over Garda presence in Kilmaine

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny TD has received the reply to a parliamentary question from the Justice Minister, Dermot Ahern, TD, where he gives no firm commitment to ensuring the replacement of Garda personnel in Kilmaine, Co Mayo. In the Minister’s response, he makes no solid commitment to the people of Kilmaine and passes the responsibility to the Garda Commissioner and his senior management to decide upon staffing allocations.

“A community delegation recently visited me at my constituency clinic where they raised there concerns,” Deputy Kenny said. “I believe it is vitally important that the area retains the current Garda coverage it has, in saying that, it is one member of An Garda Síochána that currently serves the area but offers a huge sense of security to the area. A large elderly population lives in the wider Kilmaine area; the retention of their local garda is of huge importance to the community and ensuring that the rural parts of the county are not neglected by the current ongoing Government cutbacks.”

Judge says Ireland would be better off without two Latvian thieves

Two Latvians who between them went on a thieving spree in Roscommon, Galway, and Mayo, were before Ballina District Court on Tuesday following a break-in to a hairdresser’s in Ballina last month.

Inspector Joe McKenna outlined that on February 25 at 2.40pm it was reported to gardaí that there was a break-in in Lauranne’s Hairdressers, Diamond’s Car Park, Ballina.

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