'Disgraceful!' Motion on Gaza erupts into chaos at recent Carlow Council Meeting

A motion to stop the sale of Israel War Bonds in Ireland sent the most recent meeting of the Carlow County Council into chaos, with Cllr Adrienne Wallace accusing outgoing Cathaoirleach Cllr Fergal Browne of a "dismissive attitude".

The motion in question was raised by Cllr Adrienne Wallace, the motion was centered around the Central Bank of Ireland and the regulation of Israel Bonds Issuance Programme, and facilitating the sale throughout Europe of bonds the Cllr Wallace describes as "funding genocide in Gaza."

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The motion was proposed and seconded before Cathaoirleach Fergal Browne allowed Fianna Fáil Councillor Fintan Phelan in to propose an amendment to the motion.

Following this, chaos broke out in the chamber with Cllr Charlie Murphy saying that it was "disgraceful, proposed and seconded, you should be ashamed." He went on to say to Cllr Browne that "You know it's disgraceful!"

Following this exchange and without a debate on the issue, a number of Councillors left the chambers before the Annual General Meeting that was planned to take place after.

Following the meeting Cllr Wallace said  

"I had legally placed a motion on the council's agenda on one of the most important issues in modern history. However, the motion was guillotined by the controlling group of FF/FG and no debate was allowed on the issue."

Cllr Wallace added "The government parties are playing stroke politics on such an important issue. Their stance is completely at odds with the sentiment the majority of Irish people hold and they know it so they have resorted to clamping down on democracy to railroad their position through regardless."

Cllr Wallace concluded "Councils across this island are having these debates and yet we were not afforded the same democratic right in Carlow yesterday. The outgoing Chair was extremely dismissive and flippant on this extremely important issue, despite outcry from fellow councillors. No debate was allowed to take place and my motion was essentially replaced with another that bore no resemblance to the original. This is a serious breach of the order of business and brings the local authority into disrupte."

Cllr Wallace ended the press release by stating:

"A protest of 30 people later took place outside Minister Jennifer Murnane O'Connor's office over her recent Dáil votes against banning the sale of Israeli War bonds which activists claim generates hundreds of millions towards the ongoing attack on Gaza."