Special meeting seeks border funds
SF still excluded from chair
A Sinn Féin initiative to request new Irish government funding
for the border region in the wake of the Good Friday agreement
was supported by Monaghan County Council at a special meeting
last week.
A previous attempt by SF Councillors Brian McKenna and Caoimhghín
O Caoláin to have the County Council write to the Taoiseach
pressing the issue did not succeed as other councillors refused
to set aside petty politics to support a Sinn Féin motion.
However the Sinn Féin councillors subsequently won the support of
enough councillors to call a special meeting which was held on 6
July.
The Council voted unanimously to request government action on
funding, particularly in the light of British Chancellor of the
Exchquer Gordon Brown's allocation of substantial extra funds for
the Six Counties. The Council has written to the Taoiseach.
While the councillors belatedly supported the Sinn Féin call on
the funding issue they stuck to their old pattern of exclusion
when they refused to support the nomination of Councillor Brian
McKenna as either chair or vice-chair of the County Council at
their Annual General Meeting also on 6 July.
A similar act of exclusion was carried out at the AGM of Monaghan
Urban District Council last month. Despite enjoying a very large
mandate in the county Sinn Féin councillors have never held the
chair of either Monaghan UDC or the County Council due to an
unholy alliance of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
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