FINE GAEL has admitted that a decision by six of its county councillors to back a controversial land rezoning in 2008 was “ill-advised” and showed “poor judgement”.
However, an internal party inquiry found there was no “wrongdoing” on the part of the Waterford councillors as they supported the rezoning in the belief that it would help create jobs.
The six councillors said last night that they welcomed the inquiry’s finding of “no wrongdoing” on their part and that they were not privy to all of the information available at the time of the vote.
Meanwhile, following the inquiry, Fine Gael headquarters has temporarily removed the party whip from two other councillors who refused to back a colleague in a mayoralty vote this year because of her support for the rezoning.
Cllr Maxine Keoghan has lost the whip until the end of next February as a result of not voting for Fine Gael colleague Cllr Lola O’Sullivan’s candidacy as mayor of Tramore in June.
Cllr Ann Marie Power, who also failed to support Ms O’Sullivan, has lost the whip until the end of next year as she also abstained on other votes in the meantime.
The decision was revealed at an internal meeting of Co Waterford-based Fine Gael councillors on Thursday night. Cllrs Keoghan and O’Sullivan are expected to appeal the decision to remove the whip.
The inquiry followed complaints by colleagues against Cllrs Power and Keoghan, and also complaints by the two councillors who wanted an investigation into the vote by six of their party colleagues in favour of the rezoning of a piece of land outside Dungarvan in 2008.
The land was already the subject of a Garda investigation and was rezoned against the advice of then minister for the environment John Gormley and county council management.
The land was also at the centre of a corruption case – not connected to any of the current councillors – involving former Fine Gael town councillor Fred Forsey jnr. Forsey was sentenced to six years in prison last summer for receiving corrupt payments from a property developer in 2006.
Party headquarters has decided that the decision of six of their councillors to vote against planning advice “while legitimate was, in hindsight, ill-advised”.
In a letter to councillors on Thursday, general secretary Tom Curran said: “Given the publicity surrounding the rezoning . . . and the views expressed by the planning officials, those councillors who supported the rezoning in question were ill-advised and made a poor judgment in that instance.”
However, there was “no wrongdoing, in our estimation, on the part of these councillors,” he wrote. And it did not merit adjudication by the party’s disciplinary committee.
The six councillors voted for the rezoning, he noted, in the belief that, by rezoning the lands from agricultural to industrial use, they “would assist in securing badly needed jobs for west Waterford and Dungarvan in particular”.
The six Fine Gael councillors in question are: Brendan Coffey, Declan Doocey, Nora Flynn, Pat Nugent, Lola O’Sullivan, and Mary Greene.
“It is a matter of regret,” noted Mr Curran in his letter dated October 18th, “that not all councillors knew the full extent of the speculative information and to which other of their colleagues may have been privy”.
His report also found them to have acted with “integrity and honesty”.