A Fine Gael motion of no confidence in the Sinn Féin Mayor of Kerry, Toiréasa Ferris, over her failure to condemn the Det Garda Jerry McCabe shooting failed in Kerry County Council yesterday.
While a clear majority of members on Kerry County Council yesterday condemned the shooting of Det Garda McCabe in Adare in 1996, the Fine Gael motion of no confidence in the mayor failed to gain support from any other party or independent members on the council.
Four separate emergency motions arising out of Ms Ferris's recent refusal to condemn the death of Det Garda McCabe in Adare were put before the council at its monthly meeting.
Fine Gael council leader Bobby O'Connell put forward a motion that Kerry County Council condemn the "brutal murder" with an addendum by Cllr Michael Gleeson of the South Kerry Independent Alliance that bank robberies as political fund-raising also be condemned.
The motion was seconded by Fine Gael Cllr Liam Purtill.
The motion was passed by a majority of 23 of the 25 councillors at the meeting yesterday, with Sinn Féin's two councillors, Ms Ferris and Cllr Robert Beasley, voting against.
A second motion by Fianna Fáil condemning "the savage and brutal killing" and censuring the position of Sinn Féin and Cllr Ferris because of their refusal to condemn the killing, was also passed by the same majority of 23 to two.
The Fianna Fáil motion also included support for the gardaí and a vote of sympathy for the McCabe family.
Cllr Ned O'Sullivan (FF) told Ms Ferris she was a young politician with a great future, but the McCabe family and their relatives in north Kerry were "deeply wounded by what you did and did not say."
A motion by Sinn Féin, proposed by Cllr Beasley and seconded by the mayor, proposing a vote of sympathy for all those killed in the Troubles, received unanimous support.
The fourth motion of the meeting, the Fine Gael motion on a vote of no confidence in the mayor, was described as "bizarre" and "shambolic" by Fianna Fáil Cllr Paul O'Donoghue.
Ms Ferris said the Fine Gael motion "effectively achieves nothing".
Ms Ferris said: "I believe the killing was wrong, as were other killings over 30 years of the conflict. My position isn't much different to the rest of you.
"I work closely with the gardaí and they will testify to that. I feel sorry for the McCabe family, but I also feel sorry for and want to express my sympathy to the 3,500 families."
Ms Ferris said she was not speaking as mayor or as part of the county council on The Late Late Show but as "Toiréasa Ní Fhearaoísa, Martin Ferris's daughter. I wasn't even wearing my chain of office."
She said she would have to vote against the motions condemning the shooting and particularly against the addendum condemning bank robberies as political party fundraising, "because it implies that representatives of certain parties have been involved in robberies", when it was the IRA who had carried out the operation.
The motion failed eight to 12, with five abstentions.