PADDY KENNEALLY, the Fianna Fail councillor from Waterford who recently stated that travellers should be run out of the county with shotguns - then with drew the remark - sits on the governing body of UCD, the same governing body which is currently under pressure to provide a halting site for travellers on its Belfield campus.
The Irish Times learned last week that Kenneally is one of a number of public representatives on the governing body, which is under pressure from Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council to agree terms for the sale of a site at Foster's Avenue to provide a halting site for five traveller families.
Earlier this month, Kenneally told a meeting of Waterford County Council that "the sooner the shotguns are at the ready and these travelling people are put out of the county, the better. These are not our people." UCD students' union president Loughlin Deegan said Kenneally's views "do not reflect the view of any substantial group of students".
Ten public representatives sit on the governing body: the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a representative of the county councils of Dublin and eight, councillors from around the country, of whom Kenneally is one.
While UCD has agreed in principle to the proposed halting site, it has attached a number of conditions to any sale of land for this purpose. They are: that the south east motorway should be completed first, so that any traveller families would not have to be relocated during construction work on the motorway; that local residents agree to the proposal; that a full time manager be appointed to the site and that the college will incur no ongoing costs.
The conditions are largely the work of UCD's buildings committee, on which Kenneally also sits. He has also served on the college's library committee, although committee members noted that he tended to be reticent on library issues.
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, meanwhile, considers a number of the conditions set out by UCD to be unacceptable, especially the requirement that local residents should agree to the location of the site - local residents have always opposed plans for a site in the area.
The county manager of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, Liam Byrne, has indicated that the council may consider the use of a compulsory purchase order to acquire the site if UCD does not modify its demands, though it is believed that it would prefer to acquire the site by agreement in order to avoid any further conflict with local residents.
Kenneally's presence on the governing body is likely to add to the woes of Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern TD, over the issue of Kenneally's comments. Ahern recently attended a meeting of UCD's Kevin Barry Cumann of Fianna Fail, where Kenneally's comments were unanimously condemned and demands were made for his expulsion from the party unless he apologised for his comments.
Unfortunately, it appears that nobody realised at the time that the same councillor was a governor of the college. Councillor Kenneally told The Irish Times that he had no plans to contribute to the debate at governing body level on the proposed halting site.
