The Mayor of Co Galway has said the local authority will not seek the resignation of a Fianna Fáil councillor at the centre of a Garda inquiry over fund misappropriation, pending the outcome of those findings.
Cllr Willie Burke (Ind) has also expressed shock and surprise at the decision by Fianna Fáil's Cllr Michael Fahy to resign from his party yesterday.
In a statement issued through party headquarters, Mr Fahy of Tullira, Ardrahan, confirmed he was the councillor involved in the Garda inquiry into alleged misappropriation of road funding.
"Pending the outcome of this investigation, I have decided in the interests of the Fianna Fáil organisation locally and nationally to voluntarily resign from the Fianna Fáil organisation with immediate effect."
Fianna Fáil said it had no further comment to make on the matter, but emphasised that Cllr Fahy was not resigning from Galway County Council where he has been a member for 25 years. The development followed confirmation by Galway Garda earlier this week that two separate and unrelated reports of misappropriated funds at the local authority were being investigated.
A Garda spokesman said a file would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) "shortly" on one of the cases, and it is understood this case involved a sitting member of the local authority.
The case dates back several years but was only referred to the gardaí recently after an internal inquiry by the local authority. This inquiry focused on irregularities relating to the use of funds which local authority members are allocated for public works in their area.
This "notice of motion" allocation amounts to €15,000 annually, €12,000 of which can be spent on roads and €3,000 of which can be spent on public lighting.
The internal investigation also focused on expenditures under a separate community involvement scheme, under which the community can request particular road alignments to be carried out.
These may be approved under this scheme if the community is prepared to pay 50 per cent of the cost - or donate land or expertise worth 50 per cent of same.
Cllr Fahy was unavailable for comment yesterday, but many tributes were paid to him in the south Galway area.
Cllr Burke, who is based in Portumna, said Cllr Fahy was an affable, hardworking public representative who had served his area for 25 years.
