Monaghan council calls on McElvaney to step down

Monaghan County Council has passed a motion calling on Independent councillor Hugh McElvaney to tender his resignation from the local authority.

A Sinn Féin motion moved the council formally seek the resignation of the former Fine Gael councillor because of "his clear breaches of the code of conduct binding the behaviour of councillors, as demonstrated by the contents of the RTÉ Investigates programme broadcast on Monday, December 7th".

The programme had depicted the councillor, now in his 41st year on the authority, seeking financial payment for assistance with planning issues in Co Monaghan from an undercover reporter purporting to represent a wind farm company.

The motion was proposed by Pat Treanor, who said Cllr McElvaney had brought the Council’s elected members and staff into disrepute, and had badly let down those who had voted for him by the behaviour depicted in the programme.

The motion was seconded by Sinn Féin’s Cathy Bennett, who said she was ly disgusted and shocked by the programme. “If we don’t do something about this we will be the laughing stock of the country,” she said.

Cllr McElvaney was present for the start of the meeting, but left after reading a lengthy prepared statement, despite being requested to remain for the subsequent debate.

In his statement, Cllr McElvaney repeated his earlier public assertions that he knew from the outset that his contact with the RTÉ investigate team was what he termed “a stitch-up and a wind-up” which he had played along with in order to expose “the dirty tricks of the national broadcaster”.

Cllr McElvaney said that throughout his long political career he had never accepted bribes or corrupt payments. “When I went into that interview I knew exactly what I was doing,” he said.

He expressed criticism of Government Ministers for public comments they had made in relation to him.

Referring to a statement by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, who said he was delighted the Fine Gael party had got rid of him, Cllr McElvaney said: "We will see how delighted he is with the FG results in Cavan-Monaghan in the next general election without my help."

The motion was passed by 13 votes in favour, none against with three abstentions.

Fine Gael’s David Maxwell, reading a statement on behalf of his party, said that if Cllr McElvaney had not resigned from Fine Gael on November 23r, he would certainly not have been a member of the party on the day following the programme.

“He must ask himself if he can continue in public life...it is clear to us he must reflect on his position with Monaghan County Council,” Cllr Maxwell said. He added that if Cllr McElvaney were to go before the electorate again, he had to clear his name before he did so.