Cork councillor storms out of chamber over ‘talk, talk, talk’
Midleton-based Independent councillor, Noel Collins, quit midway through the monthly East Cork Municipal District meeting, following a series of outbursts and exchanges.
The councillor, who has served for 41 years uninterrupted, vented his frustration against a senior official, Mr Collins.
He told the senior executive engineer for roads, Dave Clarke, that six letters written to the council had not been acknowledged. They related to broken footpaths, which compromised a wheelchair-bound person.
The chairman, the Fine Gael councillor, Michael Hegarty, told Mr Collins that Mr Clarke would consider repairs for the 2016 roads programme. However, the councillor loudly interrupted, saying he was “sick of that”.
Mr Collins, who had also served on the now-abolished town council, subsequently rounded on the engineer over the delay in progressing Midleton’s flood-alleviation plan, for which the former statutory urban body had set aside funding.
On being told consultants were deciding on the works, Mr Collins declared “the programme was there until we got the hatchet from Hogan. (former Local Government minister Phil Hogan). All we get at these meetings is talk, talk, talk. Asking for reports and getting nothing done”.
When director of services, Maurice Manning, said the county engineer regularly delivered updates on flood schemes, Mr Collins observed he “may as well be talking to myself as coming here”.
Mr Collins, who has long railed against the abolition of town councils, then accused officials of “looking at everything and doing nothing” when discussing a proposed upgrade of a public park adjacent to Midleton’s district offices, where, he noted, “people have to sit on grass” due to a dearth of benches.
He was also “not satisfied” when informed that a site he considered derelict was in use and not derelict at all. Mr Collins declined to be quelled
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