Cllrs mail drop on cavan town

5,000 copies of newsletter listing payments through letterboxes tofsy

A county councillor today (Tuesday), July 21 dropped around 5,000 copies of his newsletter on Cavan Town, listing monthly average gross payments to all county councillors.

Cllr Eugene Greenan, took the unusual move of producing a '2015 Annual Newsletter’ because “I believe that it is extremely important that the public are kept informed as to how effective their local representative is representing them”.
The 28-year-old Cavan-Belturbet member published the four-pager, on the front page of which is a list of all the average gross monthly payments for county councillors next to their name and then ranks them by the total number of motions put forward by each for the period from June 2014 to May 2015, which he tops with 19.
According to his figures, obtained from the council, which he says does not include payments to councillors by the Health Service Executive (HSE) or the Education and Training Board (ETB), he is also the lowest-paid, averaging €1,637.70.

'Value for money’
Speaking to the Celt yesterday morning the Sinn Féin man said that the newsletter “people need to know what you’re doing, it’s not like we just get elected and disappear into a chamber for five years. I’m sure some members might not be happy with their payments published but each person brings their own skill-set to the council I can only say that I represent good value for money but I can’t speak for anyone else,” he said.
“I’m one councillor of six covering a very large area [Cavan-Belturbet] and because the Celt or Northern Sound can’t publish everything I thought it would be a way to put across to people what I was doing because not everyone might listen to the radio or read the paper but they still ask what is happening.
“It was around €1,200 [the cost of the newsletter] and that comes out of my payment, that’s my own money, it comes out of the €1,600 listed, which itself actually comes to around €900-odd into your hand, the rest is from my salary and you can’t claim it [the newsletter] back but I intend to do it every year.

Mini TDs
“The council now is so small compared to when you had the town councils, which effectively meant nine councillors on the ground and visible in a town in addition to the county councils. That’s just not the case any more. For example, I could get a call from Blacklion to go and get something done. Now, you might laugh but councillors are now operating like mini TDs with the areas they have to cover. There’s about 25,000 people in 'Cavan-Belturbet’ area, it’s not like you just look after your parish or townland anymore. Cavan Town Council’s last local election had a registered electorate of 4,406, that was to elect nine councillors. The electoral boundary commission listed a population of 24,455 for the municipal area [Cavan-Belturbet],” he said.
In the opening address, he says: “I did not stand in the election for financial gain and I am aware of the fact that any money above my automatic entitlement would be better spent on local issues such as roads and housing in the county.”
There follows three pages of attacks on the USC, the IDA, the social housing crisis, lack of social welfare for those previously self-employed, the €11M-plus bath taken on the multi-storey carpark, the 'no confidence’ in Irish Water passed by the council, among other issues raised.
Despite rumours of the Cavan Town man once being a General Election possible those two positions have now been filled by Ballyjamesduff senator Kathryn Reilly and by party stalwart Monaghan’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD.