At the second time of asking, Dublin City Councillors last night rejected the nomination by the Independent Group of Councillors on Dublin City Council of Geraldine Molloy as the replacement for the late Anthony Flynn.
Nominating Geraldine, Cllr. Christy Burke described the fact that a vote had to be taken on this nomination as something he had never encountered in his almost forty years on the council.
“A replacement is nominated, seconded and then elected without a vote – that’s the long standing precedent which Councillors tonight ignored in the case of Geraldine, minutes after co-opting another replacement for another group” he said
Seconding the nomination, Cllr. Nial Ring was equally scathing.
“This council has a record of standing for equality and not standing for discrimination of any type,” he said.
“But yet here they are not treating Geraldine Molloy with any equality as well as discriminating against not only Geraldine herself but against the wider North Inner City community.”
Group leader, Cllr. Cieran Perry added:
“It beggars belief that Fianna Fáil, the greens and the Social Democrat councillors can collude like this to basically fly in the face of precedence and decide that they should occupy the high moral ground and decide whether, or not, someone is suitable to represent an electoral ward, again minutes after keeping their mouths shut as another replacement was correctly and rightly co-opted”
Cllr. Noeleen Reilly noted that Geraldine had huge support from her local councillors and had presented councillors with a petition of support with over 1,200 signatures, enough to be elected with ease in the North Inner City ward.
“The local councillors have been ignored, Geraldine Molloy has been ignored and the voices and will of the people of the north Inner City have been ignored and this will not be forgotten,” she said.