*Cllr Shane Talty (FF) right had raised concerns with DAC representations as far back as April of this year. Photograph: Eamon Ward.
IT HAS taken Clare’s councillors seven months to reach agreement over proposed appointments to the Clare Tourism Development DAC while further time has been sought to finalise who sits on the Kilrush Amenity Trust.
In May, elected members of the Council received an update on the status of member representation for boards associated with the local authority such as its Designated Active Companies like Ennis 2040, the Cliffs of Moher, Shannon Heritage and Clare Tourism. Shareholdings of the Council for the companies range from 22 to 100 percent.
This update followed Cllr Shane Talty (FF) raising the matter at the April Council sitting. “I am trying to get to the bottom of the Clare Tourism DAC membership, a maximum of two elected members requires recommendation and the agreement of the full Council. Since it has been incorporated, we’ve never been invited to nominate an elected member which is concerning, it has never been implemented. Who are the Directors of the DAC,” he questioned and said he was unsure if the Council had “proper representation”.
Upon receiving the report in May, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) said it “highlights gaps in the system across a number of boards” and he welcomed the progress in “appointing members to fill those gaps”.
He stated, “there is a body of work to be done on governance and filling those gaps” when proposing deferring the appointments to the Ennis 2040 DAC, Kilrush Amenity Trust, Clare Tourism DAC, Shannon Heritage DAC and Cliffs of Moher DAC to September. The deferral was seconded by Cllr Michael Begley (IND)
Absence of a councillor on the Kilrush Maritime DAC was flagged by Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) who stressed, “it is important that a DAC becomes more than a title”.
When December came around, despite having seven months to review the matter, no consensus could be reached by councillors when it came to appointing members to the Kilrush Amentity Trust. After a struggle two appointments were eventually made to the Clare Tourism Development DAC.
Respective Chairpersons of the two big party groupings in the Council moved quickly to try defer the item. Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) proposed the filling of the vacancies be pushed back to January with Cllr John Crowe (FG) seconding this. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael account for 21 of the 28 seats on the Council giving them the majority say.
First to take issue with the request for a deferral was Cllr Begley. “I have an issue with item fourteen, there’s two nominees to Kilrush Amenity Trust which is a single unit area and the rest of the county are only allowed two members to the Clare Tourism DAC, I don’t see how that adds up, it doesn’t give an opportunity to three groups in the Chamber to be represented on the DAC. There is a lot of the tourism industry in the Shannon Municipal District. Who decided there would be two, I’m not happy about it, what notification was given to nominate two people”.
Begley’s unhappiness was not voiced in May when he seconded Talty’s deferral at a time when it was outlined the Tourism DAC only catered for two nominees.
Director of Tourism Development, Siobhán McNulty outlined that their constitution “states that at the moment a maximum of two elected members can sit on the DAC, it will be reviewed and it can be amended but at the moment it does state two”. Cllr Begley responded, “I’m not happy with that Cathaoirleach. It should be more open to the 28 members of the Chamber to be nominated to it”.
“I wasn’t aware we were going to defer it,” admitted Cllr Lynch. On the rationale for just two members, he told the meeting an audit committee had previously said it was “over-subscribed”.
Clarity was then sought by Cllr Begley on whether he was able to propose an amendment to defer appointments until the review was completed to potentially allow for more elected members to sit on the Tourism DAC.
McNulty replied, “It is matter for the Chief Executive as the shareholder to set the constitution. It is to be done through the legal entity in conjunction with the Chief Executive as the majority shareholder of the company”. She explained that the Clare Tourism DAC “operates, manages and maintains tourism offerings for Clare County Council as the majority shareholder, it doesn’t have control of the direction or development of tourism assets in the county, that is a reserved function of all elected members”.
Begley then asked when the CEO could propose an amendment. Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, Cllr Paul Murphy (FG) attempting to appease all sides suggested, “With your agreement, if I say we will bring it back to the Corporate Policy Group and defer to the moment”.
This prompted Cllr Talty who was attending the meeting remotely to interject. “I don’t agree with it being deferred”. He said he had previously tabled a motion seeking nominations, “it was discussed and highlighted that it was limited to two, it should proceed today and in future if the Chief Executive decides to amend the constitution to seek additional nominations then so be it but this has been deferred for eight months at this stage”.
Following on from this contribution, Cllr Murphy said he would put the matter to the floor.
Despite agreeing with Cllr Talty that the matter had gone on for too long, Cllr Hayes repeated his call to defer the appointment for the Kilrush Amenity Trust but felt the Tourism DAC appointment could proceed. “There’s the politics of these things, I concur with Cllr Talty, it has been going on a long time, in relation to Kilrush it was an ask to defer for further discussions. We have a nominee for our party which is Cllr Talty, maybe the Chief Executive will review in January but we have a nominee”.
Once again following Hayes’ lead, Cllr Crowe then said the Fine Gael grouping were nominating Cllr Conor Ryan (FG).
Strong criticism was then levelled at the big parties by Cllr Begley. “It is a fait accompli, it is not giving technical group a chance to make a nomination. It is a closed shop as I see it, I’m not happy about that but if we can guarantee it will be reviewed in Jan we will go ahead with that”.
Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) maintained that if the matter was reviewed, “it would be a fantastic step forward for democratic balance on the board of a democratic company”.
Having a third member would give the councillors a further voice on the Tourism DAC, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) acknowledged.
Addressing the meeting, Chief Executive of the Council, Gordon Daly said they have been preparing guidelines on the operation “of all our DACs”. He said he will review the structures “in tandem with the finalisation of those guidelines is an opportunity to look at not just Clare Tourism DAC but also the member companies, I will come back to you and look at it, I note your feedback and I will do that in consultation with the CPG”.
Cllr Lynch said he would like to remain on the Kilrush Amenity Trust and proposed the appointment of Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG). Cllr Dinny Gould then proposed Lynch be returned to the Kilrush Amenity Trust with Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) nominating Cllr Rita McInerney (FF).
Following Fianna Fáil’s move to try swoop in, Cllr Lynch stated, “I understand, we have a power sharing agreement, we have two, can we let the board go back and try get a third member on it, otherwise we go to a vote”. “As Pat Hayes said, we had proposed postponing the appointment. That was the intention behind the postponement to try resolve this and make sure people who want to be on it can be,” Cllr Killeen replied.
“Can we not propose two today and go back to the review. I don’t think it will allow us have a third on it, there’s two sitting members on the board, on the interest of fairness and inclusion we could have had a discussion on it,” Lynch told the meeting.
Matters concerning the DACs have not been “fully resolved,” Cllr Hayes said. “There is no doubt with all the DACs, what happened and we should have had more discussions, DACs were let follow on and members stayed on it, the previous CEO let DACs flow on without changing members, we were asked not to disturb what was there, that is where we are today”.
Full information was not given to councillors when agreement was being reached on the different boards, Cllr McInerney stated. “A little bit of a clean-up is needed, I know we didn’t have full information when we had different agreements, there is work to be done and looked at, it needs to be tidied up”.
Balance is also needed, Cllr Lynch told Fianna Fáil’s councillors. He said in a bid to move on the meeting, he would agree for the item to be deferred until the New Year.
