The Editor, The Sunday Tribune (published 24th August 2008)

Sir,

I am loth to correct a rare and seemingly unimportant detail in your esteemed newspaper. However, on this occasion I seek your indulgence.

The report, last Sunday, that I, along with some City Council colleagues, travelled overseas to Baltimore has the possibility of causing serious disagreement with my Labour Party colleagues on the council but much more importantly a real domestic at home as my children and wife await their present from the US of A.

You see on Dublin City Council, contrary to reports often written in the heat of the summer (no excuse really this year so), there is a limit on the amount of foreign travel that a councillor can engage in. For that reason we in the Labour Group do this by agreement with our colleagues. As no agreement was ever sought or therefore approved for me to travel to America, my colleagues must surely wonder at my inclusion on your list. In fact I have not travelled abroad at all, at council expense, during the term of the current council.

Just for the record therefore can I confirm that the Baltimore I did travel to last year was the much more beautiful version in West Cork and the planning seminar I attended was one of the best I have been at. Given that your columns regularly portray the reality of my electoral area of Pembroke-Rathmines being under siege from a plethora of developers you might accept that it is in the interests of the people I represent to arm myself with the best planning advice possible.

Councillor Dermot Lacey

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 12:24 and is filed under Letters to the Editor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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