The 12 elected members of Drogheda Borough Council, who are all seeking re-election, have either returned or donated to charity cheques for €500 posted to them by a local development company.
The cheques, from DDF Developments Ltd, M1 Industrial Park, Drogheda, Co Louth, were received late last week. The company currently has a planning application before the local authority.
The application is for an apartment complex on the Donore Road, Drogheda, a short distance from the M1 motorway.
However, over 200 local people, in addition to two of the sitting councillors, have objected to permission being granted for the scheme.
In addition, when the borough council last year announced it was about to review the town development plan and invited submissions for the new plan, DDF made a submission proposing that the plan include lands, also on the Donore Road, zoned for a district centre.
The draft development plan for Drogheda went on public display last week and includes an area of land on the Donore Road with proposed zoning for a district centre.
The draft plan says this is identified "to create a sustainable district centre outside the town centre which will operate as a complementary retail hub to the existing town centre".
It would be adjacent to lands zoned for "employment generation" and close to a number of residential estates, including the apartment complex being sought by DDF.
However, no final decision has been made on any of the proposed zonings in the draft plan and it remains on public display. It will ultimately be voted on by members of the new borough council after a final recommendation is made to them by the planners and county manager.
Reacting to the sending of the cheques - which were unsolicited - political pundits yesterday said it was a naive if not foolish move by the developers, "particularly in this day and age".
The Mayor of Drogheda, Ms Maria O'Brien Campbell (FF), said: "There was no way I was accepting it. I sent the cheque back to them and said it was not my policy to accept donations and if they wanted to give money away, to give it to the local branch of the Cystic Fibrosis Association." Another councillor said he had given the cheque to charity while the remaining 10 councillors said they had all posted the cheques back.
Cllr Ger Nash (Lab) said returning the cheques was necessary so that elected representatives could "carry out their duties with a clear conscience when it comes to making decisions on such critical matters as rezoning".
In a statement, the company said: "Any donations made were within Oireachtas guidelines and no one political party was given preference."
It said it had felt it would be "a goodwill gesture in support of the local candidates in the run-up to the election. It was a gesture of appreciation for their work in their time in office."
The statement also said that election time was the only time, under the guidelines, that such donations were allowed.