The frustration felt by Laois councillors over missing out on various chairperson roles has been vented for years now and it came up again at this week’s AGM, where Portlaoise-based Independent councillor Caroline Dwane-Stanley insisted that “there is a fairer way”.
Cllr Dwane-Stanley suggested this week that Laois adopt the D’Hondt power-sharing model that is currently used in Northern Ireland and in various countries across Europe.
At the moment, county councils all over the country are controlled by whatever combinations of parties or individuals can gain a majority. In a large number of counties, including Laois, that is mostly a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael arrangement.
In Offaly, Fianna Fáil have sufficient numbers, along with two Independents, to leave Fine Gael out in the cold while in Meath and Longford, for example, Fine Gael have power with Independent support. In Tipperary, FF and FG are also backed by Labour.
Currently in Laois County Council, there are two distinct groupings.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent councillor Ollie Clooney have 12 seats between them.
The Technical Group have seven – comprised of Labour’s Marie Tuohy and Independents Tommy Mulligan, Ben Brennan, Aisling Moran, James Kelly, Aidan Mullins and Caroline Dwane-Stanley.
When elected last year and when the latest version of this grouping was formed, Cllr Mullins and Cllr Dwane-Stanley were Sinn Féin members. They have since left the party.
Mirroring what happens at national level, a coalition is essentially formed to get a majority and the Fianna Fáil (six), Fine Gael (five) and Ollie Clooney combination comfortably have the numbers when it comes to a vote, as transpired once again this week when Barry Walsh (Fine Gael) and Paschal McEvoy (Fianna Fáil) were elected to the Cathaoirleach and Leas Cathaoirleach roles, replacing Padraig Fleming (Fianna Fáil) and John King (Fine Gael) respectively.
Cllr Barry Walsh defeated Cllr Tommy Mulligan in a vote for the Cathaoirleach position while Cllr McEvoy defeated Cllr Dwane-Stanley.
This situation is mirrored at Municipal District level though no grouping has a majority in Graiguecullen-Portarlington and Cllr Aidan Mullins was recently replaced by Cllr Ben Brennan.
The voting arrangement has led to fierce criticism from the Technical Group with Cllr Mulligan regularly speaking out against it, and he was supported this week by Cllr Dwane-Stanley, who referenced a system which is used in Northern Ireland and in various countries across Europe.
“I don’t want to take from Barry’s day but there is a fairer way,” said Cllr Dwane-Stanley on Monday.
“The D’Hondt system is working in the North. We can get to a fairer way. The north is leading by example on this. We have the largest group, we have a group of seven.”
“It’s nothing personal but I do disapprove of the pact to exclude us,” said Cllr Mulligan.
“People didn’t vote for you to exclude me,” he added later. The argument is often made that the majority grouping have 60% of the seats but 100% of the top jobs.
It is also argued that the councillors work together on different committees and regularly submit joint motions. As well as that it is referenced that the various chair and vice-chair positions come with monetary benefits that aren’t available to those who aren’t in power.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives in Laois say that that is how politics work and is what they all enter in to when they go for election. It is regularly pointed out in Laois that Brian Stanley, then a Sinn Féin councillor, was chairman in Portlaoise and Leas Cathaoirleach of the Council when supporting a Fine Gael majority. On that occasion Fianna Fáil were left without any positions.
The D’Hondt system is a power-sharing model that allocates positions based on the number of seats. The bigger groupings get more positions but the smaller parties gain representation proportionate to their seat share.
In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin and the DUP have 27 seats and 25 seats respectively and have four ministerial positions each. The Alliance Party have 17 seats and two ministerial roles while the UUP have nine seats and one minister. The SDLP were squeezed out as their eight seats wasn’t enough to gain a minister.
An additional element of the D’Hondt system is that a mathematical formula is used to decide in what order each grouping gets to choose a position. Those with bigger numbers get a higher preference.
Getting a similar model in place in Laois is a long way off, if ever. The current arrangement will last the duration of this council until 2029.
But you can definitely expect the issue to be raise again. That much is certain.
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