Labour criticises 'farce' of city manager appointment

Dublin city councillors last night approved the appointment of John Tierney as the new city manager, despite criticism from Labour councillors of the selection process for the job.

Mr Tierney, the former Fingal County Council manager, was selected as city manager following interviews last month, but his appointment was not official until ratified by the councillors. However, Labour councillors last night said the process was a "sham" and a "farce" because councillors had no choice but to ratify the appointment, even though most councillors had not yet met Mr Tierney.

Andrew Montague said he was disappointed that councillors had to go through a "charade" of pretending they had a say in Mr Tierney's appointment.

"Acting as if we have the power to decide this is a farce, we don't have that power and we can't stop this appointment."

Eric Byrne said the councillors were being forced to vote in "absolute blindness" because most had not yet met Mr Tierney and the council management had not given them any information about him. The process was a "sham" Mary Freehill said.

Dermot Lacey said the interview process was also flawed because the secretary general of the Department of the Environment was on the interviewing panel. "I find offensive the role of the department in this process."

Fianna Fáil's Deirdre Heney accused the Labour councillors of "whingeing". All councillors said they had no problem with Mr Tierney personally.