*Senior engineer Seán Lenihan threatened to remove members of the public from the gallery for Tuesday’s meeting. Photograph: Eamon Ward.
UNPRECEDENTED scenes at a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District saw a senior Council official threaten to clear the public gallery.
For the July meeting of the Ennis MD, the public gallery of Áras Contae an Chláir was at standing room only due to the four of the thirteen motions focusing on the contentious draft Ennis local transport plan.
During failed attempts by Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) and Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) for a vote to be taken seeking the removal of aspects of the transport plan including the proposed one-way system on the Mill Rd and the reduction from two lanes on some roundabouts, this led to a handful of members of the public gallery interrupting the meeting to air their views.
This prompted senior engineer, Seán Lenihan to issue a warning to those in the gallery. “The public gallery will be cleared if you don’t stop,” he cautioned. “There’s nothing to vote on. The response to the motion says more analysis required, consultation open till 11th of July, comments made and will be considered”.
His comments were met with backlash from the gallery which led the engineer to add, “If ye don’t stay quiet, security will have to enter the gallery. Everybody agrees with the floor. The Mayor has the say and has the final motion”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo following the meeting, Michael Barry said he was surprised with the conduct of the top table. He has several business interests along Mill Road including Dan McInerney & Sons, Western Garages while he owns the buildings where Hustle Fitness, Talty Flooring, T&J Dry Cleaners and Sunrise Sunbeds are all located.
He stated, “I’m a little upset to say the least, we had a motion which was directly relevant to me, to the residents and to the stakeholders but that was denied, we asked for an open vote, we asked for our statutory right and the obligation to give that to us was denied so they said they will wait until Friday when the window for submissions ends. It was extended for one reason because we requested it, let it be known that the first time it was denied, they denied us an extension but we got that, we will wait till Friday but I can ensure you we will be here again to see this vote, we will be back here again because this is our life, it is our town and it is important to us so we will be back”.
To see people in the gallery make contributions was not a surprise, Michael said. “I knew people were passionate so I wasn’t that surprised, it is very hard to keep a quite hush on something which people are passionate about, there’s going to be outbursts because people care so passionately about it. If we’re all on the same page maybe the gallery should be allowed a certain voice because it is hard to hold quietness when motions are being overruled when put forward”.
