Labour decision ‘appalling but predictable’, says Declan Bree

sligo | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Sunday February 19, 2006 13:42 by Kathart - LP

A DECISION by the Labour Party’s national executive committee to reject an appeal made by Councillor Declan Bree, relating to a decision by a party complaints committee, has been described as “appalling but predictable” by Sligo’s former Mayor

The complaints committee had upheld a complaint against Councillor Bree for failing to apologise for remarks quoted in “The Sligo Champion” in March last year in which he criticised (Labour) councillors who voted down Sligo’s Traveller Accommodation Programme.

Councillor Bree was quoted in "The Sligo Champion" as saying, "the disgraceful decision to vote down the programme compels these (traveller) families to continue living in appalling and intolerable conditions." and "how can anyone who claims to share the values of the Labour movement, or how can anyone with an ounce of compassion tolerate such a situation."

While upholding the complaint, the appeals committee had recommended that no disciplinary action be taken against Councillor Bree.

The Sligo councillor appealed against the decision on grounds of fairness of procedure and the impact on the party that the decision made.

Councillor Bree, who today described the national executive decision as “appalling but predictable” said “there had been a specific complaint lodged against me relating to comments I made in respect of the vote on the Traveller Accommodation Programme.

However when the complaints hearing took place an additional 11 new separate complaints with selected background information had been added by the general secretary, none of which had been made in compliance with the party constitution. In this context the hearing had been totally compromised and the complaints committee clearly could not act in an impartial and unbiased manner.

“My request for a record of the proceedings of the hearing was refused. During the same period the leader of the party, Pat Rabbitte, in a letter to the Irish Times made very serious and unfounded allegations and made a judgement on me which completely ruled out any possibility of a fair hearing. Significantly, despite the outrage that letter caused among ordinary party members and not withstanding the large number of complaint submitted to Party headquarters about the letter no complaints hearing was established to deal with the complaints against Pat Rabbitte.”

Referring to the national executive committee’s hearing of his appeal, Councillor Bree described it as a “shambles”.

“The appeal was fixed for the national executive committee meeting of the 10th of December. However, of the total of 30 voting members of the national executive committee, only 13 members turned up. Before I concluded my presentation and withdrew from the meeting I was told that I would be informed of the NEC decision later the same afternoon.

“However agreement could not be reached on the case by the 13 and I received a phone call from head office to say that the NEC members had adjourned the matter until Tuesday 20th December. Some days later I received a further phone call from head office to say that the meeting scheduled for Tuesday 20th was being aborted because a number of the NEC members had indicated that they would not be present and there would not be a quorum to allow the meeting to proceed.

“I was advised that the matter was being deferred until the next scheduled meeting of the NEC on Thursday 26th January. I now understand that only 11 NEC members turned up to deal with the appeal on the 26th January and that a small majority of these 11 voted to reject my appeal, ” said Councillor Bree.

He thanked the party members and supporters from all parts of the country who had contacted him to convey their support for the stance he took on the Traveller issue and he particularly thanked the Sligo Traveller Support Group and the Pavee Point Centre for their ongoing support and solidarity.

"When I was Mayor of Sligo back in March I said that the disgraceful decision to vote down Sligo’s Traveller Accommodation Programme compels traveller families to continue living in appalling and intolerable conditions. And I asked how could anyone who claims to share the values of the Labour movement, or how can anyone with an ounce of compassion tolerate such a situation. I still hold these views and I repeat these comments today. I have no intention of apologising to anyone for my views or for my politics,” said Councillor Bree.