Brid Smith: My first week as a councillor

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Wednesday June 24, 2009 00:35 by Brid's Blog

It felt and smelt wrong. It felt undemocratic, rotting and needing the winds of change to blow through the windows and into the council chamber.

Our first engagement with the council as newly elected councillors was an induction session where we met the main management team of the council and were briefed on meetings, facilities, positions etc.
Dublin City Council is a huge organisation and has a beurocracy to match. But what alarmed me mostly was the horse-trading for positions that goes on among the elected councillors themselves.

When it came to the election of Deputy Lord Mayor and with his agreement, I nominated Mannix Flynn. I pointed out how the cosy consensus of the council chambers was in contradiction to the how the people voted and that Mannix’s nomination was to offer choice in that sea of consensus. Great – We had to have a democratic election. It was amazing. As the Manager called out each councillor’s name, one after another called out “Councillor Humphries” (the pre-arranged and agreed Labour nomination). The odd voice in the wilderness – all five of us in fact, called out “Councillor Mannix Flynn”. All of Sinn Fein, Christ Burke, Ring and even Vincent Jackson voted with Labour and not with the “Independents”. Full post can be read here: http://www.swp.ie/index.php?page=170&dept=News