FF councillor pleads guilty to breaching zoning ethics legislation

A LEADING hotelier and Fianna Fáil town councillor has pleaded guilty to trying to influence a zoning decision relating to his family-owned property.

Killarney mayor Patrick O’Donoghue, 41, was charged at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee, with seeking to influence a decision of Killarney Town Council arising from a motion to rezone lands surrounding the Gleneagle Hotel, in Killarney, in 2006.

It is believed to be the first prosecution of a councillor for a breach of ethics legislation.