Louth
County Council Chief Executive, Joan Martin, has again refused to
divulge legal advice the Council received in relation to a controversial
motion calling for the rescinding of the Freedom of Drogheda from
former Christian Brother leader, Br Edmund Garvey, last year.
During a heated discussion on the Council’s handling of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from local radio station, LMFM, Ms Martin said her sole concern was always to ensure that Louth County Council wasn’t exposed to legal action.
She also stoutly defended the Council’s handling of the FOI request from LMFM and accused the station of calling her integrity, professionalism and motivation into question.
LMFM had claimed that they were initially furnished with just two documents in relation to the FOI request on the Br Garvey saga, but that when the Council was compelled by the Information Commission to revisit the search, 892 documents and emails were uncovered based on certain keywords.
In the wake of the Information Commission ruling against the Council, Ms Martin claimed that her staff had been liaising with LMFM and had managed to identify around 30 relevant documents, but that the correspondence between the Council and LMFM in relation to the FOI request was then broadcast, which she described as “highly unusual”.
Cllr Maeve Yore, who proposed the original Br Garvey motion, said there were still questions to be answered in relation to the motion being removed from the monthly agenda last April and with regard to the legal advice the Council based that decision upon.
Now retired, the former leader of the Christian Brothers presided over a litigation strategy which means that cases against the order must be taken against all the members of the order at the time of the alleged wrongdoing.
Cllr Yore had proposed that Br Garvey be stripped of his Freedom of Drogheda honour and after months of discussion and debate the Borough District of Drogheda voted to no longer ‘recognise’ the title at its district meeting in September.
Cllr Yore again called on the Council to reveal the legal advice it received in relation to her motion, but the Chief Executive said she would not be releasing it, adding that councillors were welcome get a second opinion.