Decision to expel Labour Dail Candidate due next week

Labour HQ is to rule next week if councillor’s decision to break ranks has damaged party’s interests...

The Labour Party’s troubled constituency of Sligo-Leitrim is facing more turmoil after a complaint was lodged against its newly-selected general election candidate. Labour Party North Sligo branch secretary Daniel Wombs lodged a formal complaint against Jimmy McGarry with the party’s general secretary Mike Allen on November 10, accusing Mr McGarry of activities “injurious to the interests of the Labour Party” under section 14 of the party’s constitution. Mr Wombs’ complaint relates to a meeting of Sligo Council on October 3, when Mr McGarry broke ranks with party councillors and Sinn Féin and voted in support of new bylaws compelling householders to pay major increases in bin charges to private waste operators in the area. His complaint reads: “Given the fact that the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors on both Sligo County Council and Sligo Borough Council were responsible for abandoning the local authority refuse collection services and effectively handing the services over to the private operators, it is ironic that the same councillors have now voted to impose these new bylaws, which will provide a mechanism for the private operators to further increase their profits. “It is our view that Councillor McGarry’s decision to side with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael against his Labour colleagues and his decision to vote to impose these new bylaws can only be considered as injurious to the interests of the Labour Party.”A decision on whether to accept the complaint as warranting a hearing by a complaints committee will be determined by party headquarters within the next week. Former Fine Gael councillor Jimmy McGarry was the surprise choice at the party’s selection convention at the Sligo City Hotel at the beginning of the month. He defeated Councillor Veronica Cawley, after former TD Declan Bree refused to be nominated for as long as Pat Rabbitte remained party leader. There was also a low turnout at the meeting, with around 50 of Mr Bree’s supporters staying away. Mr Bree was himself subject to a disciplinary hearing last month, which found he had breached party rules by refusing to apologise for criticising fellow councillors McGarry and Cawley after they voted against Sligo’s Traveller accommodation plan.