At least one Dublin city councillor is under investigation for alleged breaches of the local government code of ethics, council chief executive Richard Shakespeare has confirmed.
Mr Shakespeare was speaking on Tuesday night at a full council meeting called to discuss misinformation and public safety.
The meeting was proposed by Independent councillor Barry Heneghan to address the “urgent and growing issue of misinformation, particularly regarding immigration”.
He was prompted in part by an incident in Finglas earlier this month where gardaí provided assistance to a man with limited English. Garda later issued a statement asking the public to be aware of “misinformation currently in circulation online and through direct messaging apps” in relation to suggestions the incident may have involved criminal activity or a threat to the public. The Garda statement advised the public, media “and public representatives” to “independently verify the source of their information to ensure accuracy”.
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Cllr Heneghan said there had been a “recent surge in false narratives”. Social media platforms such as X are used to spread “toxic, politically motivated narratives” about immigration, he said, “fuelling racism and division”. There was an onus on councillors to stand united against “racist rhetoric” and “harmful misinformation” which represented “a real threat to public safety”, Cllr Heneghan said.
Mr Shakespeare said a complaint that a councillor had breached the provisions of the Local Government Actcould be made to the council’s ethics registrar. The council would examine any such complaints and “if we form a view there has been a breach of the legislation, and believe there has, we then escalate it to a full investigation carried out by an external professional”, he said.
Asked by Labour councillor Dermot Lacey if the council was currently investigating any complaints, Mr Shakespeare said: “yes would be the answer”.
Sinn Féin councillor Janice Boylan said misinformation needed to be stopped. “As elected leaders in our communities we need to be held to the highest standards. Anybody deliberately spreading false likes and misinformation needs to held to the highest account.”
Conor Reddy of People Before Profit spoke of a child being racially abused in a playground. “That is a real consequence of the hatred spread by people in this chamber and people out on the street as well,” he said.
Independent councillor Cieran Perry said: “disinformation is a cancer damaging cohesion and amplifying the worst aspects of human behaviour” and the “racist right in this country are being platformed by the social media giants”. More worrying still were parties of the “centre right” using misinformation to link immigration to housing and homelessness problems.
Independent councillor Pat Dunne said the far right did not seem to realise they were “doing the dirty work for the establishment”.
Green Party councillor Janet Horner queried whether the council should continue to use certain social media platforms which “amplify, distort and deliberately create division in communities”.
Social Democrats councillor Daniel Ennis, who represents the East Wall area, said he had seen a marked reduction in the activities of the anti-immigrant movement, but there were “still a few in our community and few our chamber” who were sowing division. “They won’t win and hate won’t win”.
Independent councillor Gavin Pepper said he was a victim of “misinformation and disinformation” in relation to allegations that he was a “terrorist” and a “landlord”. Cllr Pepper then began to speak about missing children in State care, but faltered, and said he was confused about what he wanted to say.
Independent councillor Malachy Steenson said every political party on the council “continued to put out misinformation” in relation to a range of issues. “I’m certainly not going to take any lectures from the provisionals in this chamber or anywhere else, the people who are the masters of misinformation as was seen in the Dáil today,” he said.
He was asked by Cllr Dunne to withdraw his remark, but he refused.
Councillors of all parties agreed the council needed to unite in combating misinformation.
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