Donegal County Council is to explore temporary alternatives after Councillors again expressed dissatisfaction with the current arrangement for monthly meetings.
Since the Local Elections in 2014, Donegal’s 37 Councillors have been using one of the training rooms in the County House in Lifford as a makeshift chamber for their monthly meetings (pictured above) as the actual Council Chamber is too small.
Councillor Enda Bonner this afternoon, at the May Council Meeting, expressed ‘total dissatisfaction’.
“I don’t intend to spend another two years sitting like this,” Councillor Bonner said.
“I couldn’t hear Councillor Blaney there and you can’t see people at the other side of the chamber.”
Cathaoirleach Terence Slowey agreed that the set-up was ‘unsatisfactory for everyone’.
Donegal Council CEO Seamus Neely told members that the matter was being examined, but that a purpose-built facility would take a minimum of two-and-a-half years to complete.
He said: “There is a requirement for some interim arrangements to make it more user friendly.”
Council Director of Services Joe Peoples said that the top table could be elevated or other measures could be taken to improve the efficiency of the Council.
Councillor Frank McBrearty Junior blasted the timescale in question.
He said: “That is not good enough. We should change that monstrosity of a thing (the new building at the County House) that shouldn’t have been built first of all. How could we take anyone from Boston, for example, in here? It is an absolute joke.
“Give me bricks and mortar and I’ll build it myself!”
