Sir, – It would appear that notwithstanding recent allegations regarding some councillors, those involved seem prepared to “brazen it out” rather than resign, relying on a well-established precedent set by others in equivalent positions in the past.
In the absence of any real sanction at present, perhaps it’s time to introduce recall legislation that gives voters the power to remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended.
Such legislation should also be extended to members of the Oireachtas in a similar fashion to legislation that now applies to members of the House of Commons by virtue of the Recall of MPs Act 2015.
This Act provides for a recall petition to be triggered if a member is sentenced to a prison term or is suspended from the House of Commoins for at least 21 sitting days. If either occurs, notice is given to a petition officer. A petition is then opened for signing for an eight-week period. If at the end of that period at least 10 per cent of eligible electors in a constituency have signed the petition, the seat would be declared vacant and a byelection would follow. – Yours, etc,
NIALL NELIGAN,
School of Law,
Dublin Institute
of Technology,
Aungier Street,
Dublin 2.