Gardaí probe staff misconduct claims at council

GARDAÍ are investigating alleged staff misconduct at one of the country’s largest county councils.

Dungarvan Garda Inspector Tom O’Grady confirmed yesterday that officers have received information from a senior staff member at Waterford County Council, alleging irregularity in certain matters at the local authority.

He said a garda probe had begun but would not say how many people were involved or how long it might take.

Alarm bells began to ring when, on Tuesday night, all 23 county councillors in Waterford received text messages, asking them to read an important email sent to them.

That email was written and sent by the council’s Director of Services, Martin Walsh, just after 6pm.

The email told members that an allegation of staff misconduct had been received by the local authority. It added that an internal investigation had begun and the matter had been referred to the gardaí.

The county council refused to comment further yesterday and issued a brief statement saying: “An allegation of staff misconduct has been received by Waterford County Council.

“An internal investigation has been initiated. The matter has been referred to the Garda Síochána. No further comment is appropriate pending the outcome of the investigation.”

Fine Gael’s Damien Geoghegan called for an extraordinary meeting of the local authority, saying questions must be answered.

“We can’t leave this matter to the regular monthly meeting of our local authority on Monday week. The statement we received raised further questions which we need to have addressed immediately.

“We need a statement from the manager. We need to know how many members of staff are involved and what particular section of the council they are employed in and what role they played in this.

“We don’t know the nature of the allegations or when a complaint was first made. We also need to know when the gardaí were contacted and by whom. We need to know when the investigation will be completed.

“The fact that a garda investigation is underway should not prevent the county manager from making a statement on the matter,” he said.

Labour’s Teresa Wright said it was time for the county manager to make a full statement.

“A doubt has been cast on all members of staff at the county council at the moment. In fairness to all members of staff, an announcement should be made.”

Nobody has yet been interviewed in relation to the investigation and the Department of the Environment has been advised of the inquiry.