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17th Dec 2015

Hugh “I Want Loadsa Money” McElvaney Asked To Resign From County Council

The Monaghan councillor was featured on last week's RTE Investigates.

Megan Cassidy

Monaghan councillor Hugh McElvaney has been asked to resign from his post by local authorities.

McElvaney was featured in an RTE Investigates documentary last week, in which he was filmed by an under cover investigator asking for £10,000 in return for planning permission for a fake wind farm.

Although he later insisted he knew he was being filmed and went along with it “for the craic”, members of the council have said that he has broken the code of conduct and should step down.

Sinn Féin Councillor Pat Treanor proposed his resignation, saying:

“You know, we are all kind of painted with the same brush, we were all embarrassed by what happened,

“We were getting very angry feedback from our constituents that something needed to be done to clean up this mess and that is where we were coming from.”

However, despite a vote from Monaghan county council, Cllr McElvaney cannot be forced to resign.

Dr Jennifer Kavanagh a lecturer of Law in Waterford Institute of Technology explains: “The vote in itself can be taken in a token aspect, so they have made clear their opinions on the conduct of the councillor.

“However getting rid of a politician from any forum be it the Dáil, the council is actually near to impossible to do.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFEHt_gOcwo

Video via YouTube/