A meeting on the County Development Plan was adjourned by Kerry County Council this morning after councillors accused the executive of consulting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in private meetings over the weekend.
The special meeting, which was planned to consider the draft proposal, is starting around now, after a proposal by Cllr Mike Kennelly to adjourn it for an hour.
This meeting on the Kerry County Development Plan hadn’t even started when controversy arose over meetings between the executive and representatives from the two bigger parties over the weekend.
Several councillors argued that this created bad optics on the council's behalf.
However, the local authority's CEO Moira Murrell defended the executive saying that it made it very clear to councillors at a meeting last Friday that planners were available to meet with any representative who had questions about the draft plan.
The issue for some councillors was that a new document, including an alleged alteration to one of the proposals, was circulated to councillors who attended that meeting.
Labour councillor Marie Moloney said that could result in the smaller parties being outvoted on important policy decisions while Fine Gael councillor Mike Kennelly asked his colleagues not to judge them for availing of a meeting because the opportunity was presented to all representatives.
The argument resulted in Sinn Féin councillor Deirdre Ferris demanding an apology from Fianna Fáil’s Niall Kelleher who, she says, insinuated opposition party councillors didn’t do their job properly.
The meeting was adjourned for an hour to allow councillors who didn’t meet with planners over the weekend to be brought up to speed on any new developments and has begun in the last few minutes.
