Saved by the bell: discussion on Cork homeless preparedness cut off by Lord Mayor
Monday evening's special meeting of Cork City Council ended in frustration and division and debate curtailed.
A special meeting of Cork City Council, ostensibly held to “consider matters” regarding the local authority’s preparedness to deal with an anticipated surge in homelessness following the recent lifting of a national eviction ban ended abruptly Monday evening less than half an hour after it began.
Although the meeting was called to consider the issues arising from a committee meeting where the council’s ability to tackle a backlog of evictions, following a vote on an emergency motion, Lord Mayor Deirdre Forde rang the bell and dissolved the meeting, leaving some councillors protesting.
A motion had been proposed that Cork City Council write to the Department of Housing to demand an immediate reversal of the lifting of the eviction ban.
The wording was “That city council reaffirms its stance on the need for an extension on the eviction moratorium and will write to the Minister for Housing pressing for legislation to reinstate the ban immediately.”
However, a vote was then held not on the motion itself, but on whether or not the motion could even be debated.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors voted against debating the motion and a majority of one, 13 councillors to 12, did not want to see the motion debated.
After that, the Lord Mayor tried to bring the meeting to a close amongst protests from some councillors that there was other business to attend to.
Sinn Féin Councillor Mick Nugent, who had proposed the motion in favour of the debate, and seconder Cllr Thomas Moloney, Independent, argued that the meeting was about more than the motion and should not be closed down. But within minutes, the Lord Mayor rang the bell and left the chamber.
“We’re still here to discuss the agenda,” Cllr Moloney protested. “The agenda for this evening’s meeting said to consider the matters discussed at the Housing SPC; that’s what the meeting has been called for. What we’re here tonight for is a very serious situation.”
Cllr Mick Nugent told Tripe + Drisheen that a “procedural device” had been used to avoid having the full planned meeting.
“We’re not entirely sure that the procedures used to close down the meeting were in order and we’ll be looking into that,” he said, speaking directly after the meeting concluded.
He said the meeting had been called to inform the public about levels of preparedness for evictions and housing issues in the city: the Housing SPC meeting is only for councillors and not a public meeting.
“The Agenda for the meeting was to discuss the report on the council’s ability to deal with the lifting of the eviction ban,” Cllr Nugent said. “If they didn’t want to have the motion, why not just let the rest of the meeting proceed? I think councillors across the chamber were stunned by the closing down of the meeting.”
“This was a public meeting, where the media and the public can tune in, where people facing eviction could hear the debate and hear councillors stand over their decisions and also to hear from the executive about their capacity to deal with evictions,” he said.
“Some parties want to hide from the issue, that much is clear.”
Today Cork City Council launched a campaign on social media to advise tenants what to do if they face eviction.
The Housing SPC report which was not discussed this week will be presented at the council’s next public meeting.