Letterkenny councillor accuses Environment Minister of political cowardice

Letterkenny Sinn Fein Councillor Gerry Mc Monagle has accused Environment Minister, Phil Hogan of political cowardice.

The councillors comments come as the minister plans to visit Letterkenny next week to open the new Water Treatment Plant in the town.
Cllr Mc Monagle said “once again Minister Hogan is refusing to explain his decision to abolish Town Councils to local elected representatives. For over two years now Phil Hogan has been hiding behind political reform rather than discuss with local representatives the impact that the abolition of Town Councils will have on local democracy. Yet with one stroke of a pen he is prepared to extinguish local town governance without even having the decency to explain it to the elected members.
“At the AMAI conference in Cavan last year he refused to take questions from Councillors on his proposal’s to abolish Town Councils, telling us that he would not be abolishing Town Councils but instead would strengthen them, and would actually give Town Councils more powers.
“What we got was the Putting People First Document which contained the proposal to Abolish Town Councils in favour of Municipal Districts. If the Minister has not got the courage of his convictions then he should not be in his job.
The least the people of this town and especially its elected representatives deserve is an explanation as to why in one short stroke of a pen that the Minister is wiping out over a hundred years of town governance without an explanation. The Minister by refusing to meet with Letterkenny Town Councillors when he is in the town next Friday smacks of Political opportunism and Political Cowardice of the worse kind.”