Craic On

Last Chance Saloon

This is the last chance for Donegal Council to pass the budget. When the clock strikes midnight on Monday the elected Council will be dissolved and all of the Councillors will be out of work.

The Department of the Environment would then run Donegal Council until the next elections.

Last Week

They couldn’t agree to pass the budget last week.

Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail said that there is no point in having the meeting as they won’t change their minds and their votes.

If one of the parties did change their minds and voted to pass the budget they would take a lot of stick from the party that didn’t. They would be accused of treachery and betraying the people of Donegal.

So, it looks likely that they would not change their minds and vote for the budget unless both parties change their minds.

The Vote

At the last council meeting the vote was 15-13 not to pass the budget.

The swing vote was Independent Councillor John Campbell.

The other three Independent Councillors voted to pass the Budget.

If Councillor Campbell was to change his vote and votes to pass the Budget, stating that it was necessary for the sake of the people of Donegal for them to have Councillors to contact when things go wrong, that would mean that the vote was now 14-14.

Casting Vote

The casting vote, I’m told, would be that of the Mayor Ian McGarvey, and Independent Councillor.

So, which way would he swing? Which way would he cast his casting vote?

Well, he voted to pass the budget at the last vote so it would be assumed that he would cast it that way again.

Neat Solution

That would mean that the vote would be 15-14 to pass the budget and everyone would be off the hook.

That would be quite neat solution. Sinn Fein would hang onto their integrity and will say that they stood up for the people of Donegal.

The budget would be passed. Everyone would hang onto their jobs and the Council would continue as normal.

Hold On

Hang on a minute though.

With Councillor Campbell changing his vote that would be 14-14.

That’s 28 votes. However, there are 29 Councillors.

What happened to the other one? It seems that Councillor Jack Murray was not at the meeting. I’m not sure why and whether he will be able to make the next meeting on Monday.

Who Is He?

So, which party is he in?

He’s a Sinn Fein Councillor!

He would be sure to vote against the budget.

So, if he comes to the meeting this time and votes as expected that would be 15-14 against the budget even if John Campbell changes sides.

Game Over

And Donegal Councillors would be out of work from midnight and sitting at home twiddling their thumbs until the council elections in May.

And they would have plenty of time to try to second guess whether the electorate would vote them back in again in May after they took out the whole of the elected council for the previous 4 months on a point of principle.