Cllr Daly not satisfied with response to questions
Related Articles
A SOCIALIST Party councillor who has had a lot of questions about the relationship between Fingal County Council and Sporting Fingal says she is still not satisfied with the answers provided to her by the council.
Cllr Clare Daly (SP) rejected the county manager's assertion that she had received a very comprehensive report on the relationship between the council and the football club.
Cllr Daly instead described the answer she received as a 'strange report giving me a lot of information I didn't ask for'
She said she was disappointed with the response she got to 'raising legitimate questions' about the council's relationship with the football club and described the council's attitude to the issue as 'defensive'.
She claimed the club had one of the biggest players' wage bills in the country, a claim that was completely rejected as 'absolutely untrue' and 'way off the mark', by John O'Brien, a senior official from the council's sports division.
'This club is demonstrably costing a lot of money to run and I would like to know where the money is coming from and if the council is liable in the future if money is not forthcoming from its present owner,' Cllr Daly said.
Cllr Michael O'Donovan (Lab) said that Cllr Daly's tone was 'entirely negative' and he had no problem in the council allocating resources to Sporting Fingal because it was 'good PR' and helped in the 'branding of the county'.
Cllr Anne Devitt (FG) mounted a staunch defence of the club and the council's association with it saying that Sporting Fingal gave people a 'sense of belonging' to their county and allowed them to say 'I am from Fingal and I am proud of it.'
She said that Sporting Fingal was not ' just another private club' and was 'embedded in the community'.
As for developer Gerry Gannon's involvement in the club, she said that philantropy was a good thing and not a negative thing and should be encouraged.
Cllr Darragh Butler (FF) said that all of Cllr Daly's questions have been answered before and said that instead of 'sitting on the sidelines' the Socialist Party councillors should be volunteering to work for the club as many of their colleagues from other parties had already done.
Cllr Tom Kelleher said that he did not seen 'any catches' in the council's involvement with the club. He said that Sporting Fingal's success had been 'phenomenal' and ' very good for the community'.
- John MANNING
