Defiant FG cllrs snub party hearing

Two FG councillors facing disciplinary action over their failure to support a colleague who backed a controversial rezoning vote are refusing to attend an internal party hearing next week.

Ann Marie Power and Maxine Keoghan were told by FG headquarters to be at the meeting in Dublin next Tuesday to explain their refusal last month to support a party member attempting to become mayor of Tramore.

Both councillors abstained in the vote because of Lola O’Sullivan’s backing of a land rezoning in 2008.

They have renewed calls for an independent investigation into planning and zoning in Co Waterford.

FG ministers have already ruled out such an inquiry while the Department of the Environment said there was “no wider prima facia evidence that would merit the establishment of an independent inquiry”.

The piece of land outside Dungarvan was at the centre of the Fred Forsey Jnr corruption trial in Waterford last May. The former FG councillor was convicted of taking €80,000 in corrupt payments from a developer in 2006 in return for his support for the rezoning.

Cllr O’Sullivan was one of seven FG councillors who backed the rezoning while Cllr Power voted against.

Now Cllrs Power and Keoghan say they won’t be attending any disciplinary hearing until Fine Gael conducts an investigation into planning and zoning in Waterford “along with the conduct of the seven councillors” who voted for the rezoning in 2008.