NAAS, 5 July 2001: by Brian Byrne. An attempt by Naas UDC councillor Mary Glennon to have political donations by developers be a possible conflict of interest situation when voting on matters relating to such developers failed on Tuesday night when outgoing chairman Pat O’Reilly ruled that such donations were not in conflict with the business at hand.
The business was the vote on the sale of the UDC’s Sallins Road car park to Newbridge-based developer Tom Treacy for £500,000, details of which were published on KNN on Tuesday morning. Although Glennon didn’t get to naming any councillors, Timmy Conway jumped in to say his PD party had been in receipt of £1,000 from Treacy towards Conway’s 1997 Dail attempt campaign, but it had been ‘properly declared’.
An earlier discussion on the disposal had included a lengthy report from town manager Tommy Skehan and town clerk Declan Kirrane, recommending the sale of the property to Treacy, and questions on the price for the £1.5 million-valued site from Glennon and fellow independent Anthony Egan, and Labour councillor Pat McCarthy.
Other concerns discussed were the required provision of alternative car parking on the Sallins Road by Treacy during the course of his development. Although a recent meeting was told that the developer was quoting the Health and Safety Authority as ‘not allowing him to provide temporary parking on the site’, town clerk Declan Kirrane responded to queries by Glennon on this with a letter which apparently indicated that consultants to Treacy had advised against it.
Glennon raised the political donations issue just prior to the vote, which went in favour of the deal with the developer by five votes to four, when FF councillor Charlie Byrne (left) sided with the ‘opposition’.
As the meeting was temporarily adjourned by outgoing chairman O’Reilly (right), there were extraordinary scenes as independent member Seamie Moore suddenly stood up and shouted across the room at a bemused McCarthy, telling him he was ‘against everything’ and had no interest in the development of the town.
When a very one-sided tirade subsided, there was a a strongly negative atmosphere in the chamber which had the effect, among other things, of causing some members to open the wine which had been put aside for after the upcoming AGM.
The political donations declared by Conway for his 1997 Dail election attempt included £1,000 from Treacy, £2,000 from Millennium Park and Oldtown Demesne developer Gerry Conlan, £1,000 from BBA Ltd, Kill, and £1,000 from Straffan-based developers Choragas Ltd.
©2001brianbyrne/knn