Latest Laois News: Laois Councillors clash over roads message
The latest Borris-In-Ossory Mountrath Municipal Meeting saw councillors clash over how one of their own councillors presented a recent roads allocation in both the social media and old-school media spaces.
Led by Durrow-based Independent Councillor Ollie Clooney there was a rebuke for their younger colleague Cllr. Conor Bergin.
Cllr. Clooney had this to say:
“Cllr. Bergin’s statement put more pressure on councillors.”
The statement of Cllr. Bergin in question was the following:
“I am pleased to confirm that a number of roads in the Camross, Coolrain and Killanure area will be resurfaced in the coming weeks and months by Laois County Council as part of our overall €2.4 million investment in upgrading regional and local roads in our Municipal Area this year.
“I have been working closely with Charlie Flanagan TD over the last few years to highlight the importance of investment in the Slieve Bloom mountains and advocate for support from the Government in this regard.”
Cllr. Bergin countered by querying if the councillors had read the statement in full. He went on to say he was justified highlighting such a “significant investment in the Slieve Bloom area.” The Borris-In-Ossory-based Councillor went on to point out that the other councillors were free to highlight such investment in local roads in both social media and through the local papers.
Mountrath-based Independent Councillor James Kelly succeeded in lowering tensions when joking that maybe the other councillors were not as good as Cllr. Bergin in using social media to highlight such investment in the local road network.
Fianna Fail Councillor Paddy Bracken claimed that the impression was created by Cllr. Bergin’s statement that there was extra money available for roads within the Western Area (of Laois).
Cllr. Bergin called upon his counterpart Cllr. Bracken to clarify that he never used the words ‘extra money’ in his statement. The Young Fine Gael councillor went on to say he was just highlighting how money was being spent on the roads in Laois.