Officials to nominate potential stand-ins

Independent councillors in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will for the first time nominate their own replacements should they be unable to continue during their term of office.

Under new standing orders agreed last night, Independents will nominate a list of individuals in order of priority to replace them should they be unable to continue for any reason. If they do not suggest nominees within two months of yesterday’s date or within two months following an election, they will lose the privilege.

Political parties already have the ability to co-opt replacements from a list of candidates for party members who have left council during their term. During the current term, co-opted members included People Before Profit councillor Melissa Halpin who replaced Richard Boyd Barrett when he was elected to Dáil Éireann.

There are three Independents on the council: Victor Boyhan, Tony Fox and Gearóid O’Keeffe.

Councillors also voted to transfer €30,000 from the council’s business support grant fund to help finance 31 projects related to the Gathering.

It will be matched by money from the national Gathering fund.

In other business, a suggestion that ice-cream vans should be banned from public parks was rejected.

Labour Party councillor Richard Humphreys, who said he was “all in favour of ice-cream” and “not a kill-joy”, suggested it was inappropriate to allow selling of “rubbish food” in public parks and asked that it be stopped.

But fellow party member, Councillor Lettie McCarthy, said the council should not be “so precious”.