This article is from page 15 of the 2006-06-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
A CALL was made last night for Clare County Council to appoint an in-house legal agent to work full-time with the local authority.
At last night’s adjourned council meeting, Councillor Christy Curtin (Ind) requested County Manager, Alec Fleming to appoint the full-time legal adviser to be based at the council offices.
Supporting Cllr Curtin, Cllr Brian Meaney (GP) requested that the council undertake a cost-benefit analysis to determine if it was more effective to have an in-house law agent rather than retaining an outside firm to act for the council.
“I would like to know what is best practice in other local authorities. My own preference is that we would have an in-house law agent as opposed to employing someone from the outside, who can be distracted by other work,” he said.
The councillors made their call after the council confirmed in a letter circulated last week that it will advertise for legal services in the coming weeks, prior to the ending of the arrangement in September with Michael Houlihan & Partners, which have acted as the County Solicitor for the past 30 years. The post is a lucrative one with Houlihans receiving €2.2 million from the council over the past three years.
Cllr Martin Lafferty (Ind) last night recalled the contract being awarded in 1976 when the then County Manager told him that it wasn’t feasible to have a full-time legal officer.
Cllr Lafferty said, “Surely with the all the legislation that the council must now contend with, it is time that the Manager appoint a permanent law agent.
In response, Mr Fleming said that current contract is ending based on age and the new contract would be a seven year term.