Local Authority: Galway County Council
Issue: Investigation into council official
A Galway County Council inquiry found that a senior official breached the Code of the Conduct for council employees by developing a "side business/consultancy" in which he acted as an agent who provided technical advice in planning applications submitted to the council.
The official, Michael Clifford, who was previously the Senior Assistant Chief Fire Officer at the council – was placed on administrative leave in May 2019 while the matter was being investigated.
In November 2020, following an inquiry, the council concluded that Mr Clifford had developed a "private consultancy role" over a "substantive period" in which he provided technical advice in planning applications. It said his actions "constituted serious misconduct."
Mr Clifford retired from the council the following month.
The story has its origins in the popular tourist destination, Kilronan in Inis Mór, where Mr Clifford had assisted a local businessman with planning applications.
However, its popularity has its downsides, as raw sewage flows out into a field known locally as "the Pit" each summer, affecting a special conservation area.
A Health Service Executive inspection noted that sewage was "ponding on the surface" and described it as a "danger to public health".
The council referred to a "cesspool of effluent which poses a serious environmental and public health and safety issue" in one document.
Local resident Joe Flaherty has been concerned about this site for several years, as his home overlooks two areas of exposed sewage causing the problem, one of which is the Pit.
"Where we live, you cannot open your windows, your doors; there is a constant smell of rotten eggs," Mr Flaherty said. "It is just terrible. There is no comfort."
The local sewage system is unable to cope with the volume of waste.
A local businessman owns the land where the Pit sits, and, in 2019, the council warned him to stop illegal discharges and remove contaminated waste.
Some of his businesses discharge into the Pit, but they are not the sole source of sewage, as the council-owned public toilets are also a factor.
Concerned about the worsening sewage situation, Mr Flaherty kept a close eye on Inis Mór planning applications. In one application, Mr Flaherty discovered that Mr Clifford was working as a private consultant and had prepared an expert report for the businessman who owned the Pit.
He then sent a formal complaint to the council, alleging that this was a breach of ethics legislation.
Council employees can work privately but not if this conflicts with the council's work – like planning – and they must declare the private work they undertake.
Based on Mr Flaherty’s complaint, the council launched an investigation into allegations of gross misconduct and hired two retired senior executives from another local authority to investigate.
But it coincided with a time when Mr Flaherty was having cancer treatment, which made meeting the investigators problematic.
"I kept on calling them asking them what was happening with my complaint," he said. "Then they said it was put on hold because of the pandemic."
RTÉ Investigates sought all records related to consultants’ investigation under the Freedom of Information Act. Galway County Council duly released a full copy of a report.
It said that due to the pandemic and their concern for Mr Flaherty’s underlying health condition, "it was in the best interests of all concerned at this point to place this investigation on hold indefinitely".
The report we received indicated that the investigation team had not investigated the private planning work undertaken by Mr Clifford, in part due to an apparent lack of documentation.
However, when we examined Galway County Council’s online planning database, we found numerous instances of Mr Clifford’s private planning consultancy work. He operated under a range of business type names, including the Irish version of his name.
When we put our findings to the council, it told us that there was, in fact, a second investigation report. This had not been disclosed to us in our freedom of information request.
Earlier this week, the council provided us with a copy of the second report – which came to a different conclusion than the earlier report we had been provided with.
The second report concluded that Mr Clifford had worked for clients on planning applications, including those on Inis Mór, and that he had breached the Code of Conduct for Employees and ethics legislation.
A follow up disciplinary process found Mr Clifford guilty of gross misconduct for breach of his employment contract and recommended that he be dismissed. However, Mr Clifford resigned in November 2020.
In a statement to RTÉ Investigates, Mr Clifford denied any conflict of interest and said he had declared his private work. He said that when he attended meetings on behalf of clients with council staff to discuss planning matters, his colleagues would not have been aware that he was an employee of Galway County Council.
Mr Clifford also sent us a copy of a letter he received from the council in December 2020 – ten days after the disciplinary process had concluded – to mark his retirement, which thanked him for 17 years of loyal and dedicated service.
We subsequently asked him about the findings of the second report. In a statement, Mr Clifford said he never abused his position with the council in any way, nor did he do anything improper. He said his private work was completely separate and not done on council time.
In a statement, the council said it initiated a comprehensive external investigation and acted on its findings in 2020.
It also said: "The matter was not referred to the Standards in Public Office as Galway County Council had arranged an external investigation of the matter under Galway County Council’s Disciplinary Procedures and the employee was no longer in the employment of Galway County Council."
