Months on, council still investigating ethics complaints against independent councillor

Last October, People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy filed complaints with Dublin City Council about another councillor. 

He alleged that his constituency colleague in the North West Area, independent Councillor Gavin Pepper, had breached the council’s code of conduct. 

Dublin City Council is investigating the complaints, says Reddy, but – eight months later – has yet to issue any findings.

A council official recently told him the process would wrap up soon, but that’s still too slow, says Reddy. “My own feeling is that months ago it was too long.”

Pepper didn’t respond to queries sent by email and text about whether the council’s drawn-out process is also a problem for him. 

Neither the council’s code of conduct for councillors, nor its protocol for handling complaints lays out complete timelines for how long investigations into alleged breaches should take.

The council’s CEO, Richard Shakespeare, has said ethics investigations can take time. 

“Where complaints are made under ethics legislation, there is a process to follow, however long that takes,” said  Shakespeare, at a special council meeting on disinformation last October. 

“You may not be happy with the pace at which they are done, but the important thing is that they are done properly and in accordance with statute,” he said.

As Reddy waits for the outcome of his complaints, another has gone in.

In April, Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha complained to the council about a video that Pepper shared – originally someone else’s post on social media – in which the person speaking characterises people he believes are from other countries, some of whom he calls “foreigners” or “Africans”, working and socialising on a street in the city centre, as criminals. 

Mac Donncha says the council has not yet decided on that complaint either, but it should deal with these complaints quickly when the matter is serious. As he sees it, “the video breaches the code of ethics and brings the council into disrepute”, he says.

Pepper didn’t respond to a question sent by email about whether he thinks the video share is in line with the code of conduct. 

Tackling misinformation

MacDonncha’s complaint relates to a TikTok video, which Pepper shared on his Facebook page. 

In it, a person walks down Dorset Street and North Frederick Street and offers their commentary on the number of apparently immigrant-run businesses.

The person – not Pepper – who is recording the video alleges, among other things, that all the people on the street and in the shops are criminals.

“Criminals everywhere, God knows where – open borders – God knows where all these people are coming from,” he says. “They are all wanted all around the world, in other parts.”

Councillors are bound by the same social media policy as council staff, according to the council's code of conduct. 

This prohibits council employees from sharing content that “promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, age, race, religious belief or membership of the Traveller Community”.

Last October, independent Councillor Barry Heneghan – now a TD – requested a special meeting on misinformation and public safety, prompted by an incident in Finglas on 4 October.

“The recent surge in false narratives has escalated due to a lack of clear communication from the government, creating a vacuum for harmful misinformation to spread, divide and incite violence in our communities,” says the request for the meeting, which was co-signed by 27 other councillors.

The government and the council must act quickly to combat misinformation that causes division in communities, and puts people’s safety at risk, it said.  

At the meeting, Shakespeare, the council’s CEO, indicated that he doesn’t see monitoring social media as the council’s job. “We’re not the social media police,” he said. 

Dublin City Council has started responding to misinformation on social media. The council recently posted on X to refute rumours about a social housing project at Clonshaugh Road in Dublin 17.  

The council said in the post it was aware of false narratives about the development and that the homes would be allocated to people on the social housing list.

Breaches of the Code of Conduct

Dublin City Council hasn’t yet responded to questions sent Monday asking how many ethics complaints it is currently investigating in regard to councillors. 

There’s no timeline in the code of conduct that sets out how long the investigation of a breach should take. And only some timelines mentioned in the protocol for handling complaints.

That protocol notes that the council’s CEO and the Lord Mayor can decide to handle complaints informally.

But if the CEO and the Lord Mayor decide that an investigation is warranted, then the concern should be put to the councillor within 10 days, says the protocol. The councillor then has an opportunity to respond to the complaint. 

If the CEO decides that the councillor breached the code, they can respond in several ways. 

The council can write to the councillor to remind them of the code. It can also recommend training.  

Depending on what the issue is, the council can potentially refer the issue to the Standards in Public Office Commission or to An Garda Síochana. 

Some councillors say the council's response to repeated breaches of the code of conduct needs to be quicker and clearer. 

“The delay is baffling,” says Mac Donncha, of Sinn Féin.

“It's unclear when certain standards apply,” says Reddy, of People Before Profit. 

Councillors also said they were unhappy with the lack of any provision in the code of conduct for fines and sanctions, for breaches of the code. 

The council can fine a councillor who disrupts a public meeting and refuses to leave, according to the council’s rulebook, known as standing orders. But there are no fines for breaching the code of conduct. 

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner says that, in general, the council needs tighter sanctions for when councillors breach the code of conduct. 

The code of conduct lays out expected behaviour. It says, among other things, that councillors must treat others with respect and dignity, act in a way that enhances public trust and confidence, and “promote equality and avoid bias”. 

But it is difficult to work out how to sanction people who conduct most of their politics online, Horner says. 

Also, separately from the complaints about Pepper, there are cases where other councillors have acted in an aggressive way at council meetings, says Horner. 

It is really important for democracy that people can express themselves freely without the threat of aggression or violence, she says. 

“I think there should be sanctions for people who are reckless with other people’s safety,” she says.