Madam, - I am absolutely shocked that the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Pat Rabbitte, would attack a fellow party member, current councillor and former Labour TD in a letter to your paper (September 6th).
That he should chose to make his attack in such a public manner on the basis of scurrilous and unfounded allegations - and indeed allegations which I read of for the first time in your paper - is particularly shocking.
Mr Rabbitte writes that "in Sligo Cllr Bree used his position as mayor to stop an accommodation site going into his own electoral ward and sought to put it into the ward of a colleague that already has three such sites." The minute book of Sligo Borough Council for February 2005 will confirm that the only proposal in regard to my ward, the East Ward, was an amendment to the Traveller Accommodation Programme to the effect that a location be sought in the ward for the provision of apartments for newly wed young travellers. The minutes will confirm that I, as Mayor of Sligo, and the other councillors, supported the said amendment.
In all my years as a political activist and in my 31 years as an elected representative I am proud of the fact - and the record will show - that I have always striven to protect the rights of minorities, whether immigrants, Travellers or other groups. This must surely be the first occasion in the history of the Irish Labour Party that a party leader has attempted to vilify and smear a Labour Party colleague in such a manner.
Let me point out that the only complaint or allegation against me is that I brought the Labour Party into disrepute by refusing to apologise for publicly describing my fellow councillors' decision to vote against Sligo's Traveller Accommodation Programme as disgraceful.
This complaint is to be investigated by a specially convened complaints committee on the decision of the general secretary of the Labour Party, presumably after discussion with the leader! I leave it to your readers to decide who is bringing the Labour Party into disrepute. - Yours, etc,
Cllr DECLAN BREE, Labour Party, Sligo.