Roscommon council CEO rejects group’s call for his resignation

The CEO of Roscommon County Council, Eugene Cummins, has dismissed a call by an environmental group for his resignation, describing it as "a rant".

A press release which called on Mr Cummins to resign was issued last week by the Cork-based Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), the group which successfully took High Court actions to block efforts by Roscommon County Council and the OPW to install a flood relief pipeline from Lough Funshinagh.

In the statement on Tuesday, April 19, FIE criticised Mr Cummins and suggested he should stand down over what it termed "an unprecedented attack on a sitting High Court judge" at a meeting of Roscommon County Council on March 28.

During that meeting, Mr Cummins spoke about his deep frustration and his "hurt for the people of Lough Funshinagh" after the High Court action by FIE had brought a halt to the flood relief works at the South Roscommon turlough.

"I've never been able to convey my frustration, my feeling of hurt before because we have always been under the thumb, flag, and the anger of a court," said Mr Cummins at the meeting.

"And being there in the court, and watching and listening to how our senior counsel was treated, to see how the Friends were treated - was - unless I saw it I wouldn't have believed it."

FIE claimed that these and other comments by Mr Cummins at the meeting had "impugned the integrity and impartiality" of High Court Judge Garrett Simons.

The FIE statement went on to say that if Mr Cummins did not resign, it would be asking the Government to "take action", suggesting that his position as a board member of the Local Government Management Association was "untenable".

The statement also was also critical of OPW Minister Patrick O'Donovan over comments he made in respect of the High Court action. "We are deeply concerned by the comments recently expressed by Minister O’ Donovan and Eugene Cummins," said FIE director Tony Lowes.

"These public officials, in a jurisdiction subject to the Separation of Powers, have seriously strayed beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse by not alone attacking FIE for taking successful legal action to enforce environmental law, but by going on to directly criticize the Court hearing that legal action."

The Westmeath Independent contacted Mr Cummins to ask if he wished to respond to the statement by the FIE.

"I am delighted to have the opportunity to respond to this rant," said Mr Cummins.

"It's just a pity that FIE seem to be more concerned with what I said, what they think I said, and indeed with what I didn't say, than they are for the wellbeing of the community who have to live with the constant fear of losing their beautiful family homes to flood waters, that spill from a lake, perched on a hill, and that is fed by surface water."

At the council meeting last month, Mr Cummins said the council had incurred legal costs of more than €250,000 as a result of the High Court action over Lough Funshinagh.

Separately, the Sunday Times reported that the Office of Public Works had spent more than €1 million on the ill-fated installation of the flood relief pipeline that was designed to funnel excess water from Lough Funshinagh to the Shannon, at Lough Ree.

"After Easter we have to go back and restore all of the land, take away the pipes, take away the shingle, restore the land, and essentially walk away," said Mr Cummins last month.

He suggested that the relocation of residents in the vicinity of the turlough now appeared to be the most likely outcome of the flooding crisis.

Mr Cummins commented that the council would soon be assessing "what might happen in terms of letting (Lough Funshinagh residents) have a home, somewhere," adding, "I don't think it's going to be where they're living now, unfortunately."