Labour councillor walks out of party disciplinary hearing

Labour councillor Declan Bree has walked out of an internal party disciplinary hearing this afternoon.

Party leader Pat Rabbite has accused the former TD of bringing the Labour party into disrepute because of comments he made about other party members.

Mr Bree branded the behaviour of two party colleagues as "disgraceful" when they failed to support a proposal to establish a new a Traveller halting site in the town.

If found guilty, Mr Bree could be asked to leave the party, but has said that he would appeal any such decision.

This is the second hearing the Sligo councillor has withdrawn from after a list of 11 further complaints was introduced.

Mr Bree said: "I had expected that the complaints committee would have realised in the period since we last met that they had no choice but to abort the hearing in the interests of natural justice and due process.

"However, not alone did they fail to abort the hearing today but they accepted further documentation from the general secretary which contained utterly false information from the first hearing.

"Given the flagrant non-compliance with the rules of natural justice, I had no option but to withdraw from the complaints committee hearing this afternoon," he concluded.