{"id":581395,"date":"2026-08-03T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581395\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T07:21:10","slug":"mayor-of-limerick-complains-to-taoiseach-and-tanaiste-about-councillors-after-fractious-meeting-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/581395\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor of Limerick complains to Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste about councillors after fractious meeting \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State\u2019s only directly elected mayor <\/a>made complaints to Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris about prominent Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael councillors amid a row over the circumstances of the passing of a council plan. <\/p>\n

There has been tension between Mayor of Limerick John Moran <\/a>and FF and FG councillors, the two biggest parties on Limerick City and County Council (LCCC), during the time since his election as mayor in 2024.<\/p>\n

Moran<\/a>\u2019s letters to Martin and Harris came after a particularly fractious council meeting in February 2026. <\/p>\n

The local authority\u2019s delayed corporate plan \u2013 setting out strategy for the years 2025 to 2029 \u2013 was passed by councillors in Moran\u2019s absence despite proposed amendments he wished to make after he left the extended meeting for health reasons.<\/p>\n

Now correspondence released by the council under the Freedom of Information Act shows Moran wrote to Martin and Harris \u201cto raise serious concerns regarding the conduct of certain members of your parties\u201d during the meeting.<\/p>\n

He set out how he had cardiac tests in hospital earlier on the day of the meeting and later \u201cexperienced concerning symptoms\u201d that were \u201cconsistent with the reasons for those tests\u201d. Moran <\/a>wrote: \u201cI made it clear that I was unwell and that the situation required caution and I needed to go home to rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed the decision to continue the meeting and vote on the corporate plan in his absence \u201craises serious questions about respect, judgment and fairness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Moran called on the two leaders to review the conduct of their party members during the meeting and to \u201cpublicly reaffirm\u201d their parties\u2019 \u201ccommitment to respect for the office of directly elected mayor\u201d among other requests. <\/p>\n

Martin later responded: \u201cThe Government is fully committed to supporting the office of directly elected Mayor of Limerick and we want to see the new arrangements work effectively and successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the \u201cspecific matters\u201d raised by Moran, Martin said he was advised by the Department of Local Government that \u201cinternal matters and the day-to-day operations\u201d of LCCC are \u201cbest dealt with at a local level\u201d. <\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il councillor Catherine Slattery, who was Pr\u00edomh Chomhairleoir [chief councillor] at the time of the contentious meeting, said last week she did not accept Moran\u2019s complaints, saying \u201cI think we conducted ourselves perfectly fine in a very stressful situation\u201d. She described his complaint to Martin as \u201cpathetic\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesman for Moran disputed Slattery\u2019s characterisation of the meeting. It noted the mayor \u201cstands over\u201d raising the matter with the Taoiseach and T\u00e1naiste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State\u2019s only directly elected mayor made complaints to Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin and T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris about prominent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,245340,1843,43,70],"class_list":["post-581395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-limerick-mayor","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}