Appointment of Tipperary councillors to town centre task force sparks debate about over-representation
The appointment of a councillor to sit on a town centre task force caused a lively debate at the November meeting of the Tipperary-Cahir-Cashel Municipal District.
At the meeting, members were asked to propose a councillor to sit on the Cashel Town Centre First task force, which aims to combat vacancy and dereliction, and breathe new life into the town.
At the monthly meeting, three councillors from the district were selected to sit on the task force, prompting concerns from the council’s top table about the “over-representation” of council members.
Fine Gael councillor John Crosse proposed party colleague Cllr Declan Burgess to sit on the committee, which was seconded by councillor Marie Murphy
Cllr Micheál Anglim proposed district Cathaoirleach Roger Kennedy, with independent councillor Andy Moloney seconding this proposal.
Finally, independent councillor John O’Heney proposed fellow independent Cllr Liam Browne to sit on the task force, a move that was seconded by Cllr Maírín McGrath.
However, the selection of three councillors to sit on a small committee drew some concerns from director of services Damien Ginty who said that the three appointments would mean that a quarter of the committee would be made up of council members.
"It’s a small committee and already a quarter of it, as a result of these proposals, is going to be comprised of elected members of this district.
"The idea here is to bring as many people from the community, as many people from the town and as many people from different groups in the town into the into the process as we can, and there’s a risk here of significant over-representation of elected members from the MD on the committee,” Mr Ginty said.
In response to this, Cllr Andy Moloney said that by having three elected members on the committee would help to keep people mindful of the task force.
“The three members on it should keep people mindful of it, more so than anything, and I do think that with the three members from Cashel, it would be ludicrous that they don’t have an input into it, they know the town all their lives,” Cllr Moloney said.
Fine Gael councillor Marie Murphy said that she felt it would be “only fair” to have all three Cashel-based elected representatives on the task force.
"I think it’s only fair that all three of them would be on it, they’re the elected representatives of this district, so while I understand what Damien is saying about there being an over-representation but we need to have people feeding back in what they’re looking to have done in their towns.
"It makes sense in my opinion that all three Roger, Declan and Liam would be on the committee,” Cllr Murphy said.
Agreeing with the decision, Fine Gael councillor Declan Burgess said that the three appointees are well-known and involved in the community of Cashel.
"The three of us wear a lot of different hats in the community, so as elected members, we’re engrained there, and I’m happy to support the consensus here to have three members on the task force,” Cllr Burgess said.