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[Press Release: July 7th, 2005] De Burca extremely disappointed at other councillors' response to Ethics ReportGreen Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has claimed that she is extremely disappointed with the reaction of her fellow councillors on Wicklow County Council to the publication of a report based on an Ethics complaint she made in August 2004.She points out that far from "exonerating" Cllr Whittle from the charge that he did not declare a conflict of interest when making a rezoning proposal last July, the report found that he had made an "error of judgement" and had acted "unwisely". She claims that the report did not find Cllr Whittle guilty because he apparently had not experienced a "beneficial or pecuniary interest" from proposing the rezoning. She questions this and argues that because there was an existing commercial relationship between Cllr Whittle and the landowner in question, it was difficult to accept that there was no beneficial interest of any kind involved. "My colleagues on Wicklow County Council do not appear to believe that it is wrong for a practising solicitor such as Cllr Whittle to propose rezoning the land of a client who he was representing legally at the same time in relation to the activities happening at the site" says de Burca. "In fact, rather than supporting me in attempting to put a stop to this kind of questionable behaviour, they have attacked me and called me unfit for public office. What kind of crazy standards apply in local government these days?" she asks. Councillor de Burca states that she entered politics because she is idealistic and believes in the importance of political decision-making in creating a healthy and fair society. "There is a lot of public cynicism about politics and politicians at the moment" says de Burca. "This is because people have lost trust in politicians and don’t believe that they represent the broad public interest any more. My own experiences of local government have been quite depressing at times. However, rather than staying outside the political system and complaining about it, I decided to get into it and to try to bring about change. This is often very difficult but I believe it is necessary if we want to reform and reclaim our local democracy". Councillor de Burca says that although she has found the extremely negative coverage she has received over the past week very unpleasant, she has no intention of letting it prevent her from continuing to represent the people who have elected her as effectively as she can. "I campaigned on a ticket of Clean Politics in the last two local elections" she says. "I am very fortunate since last June to have two Green Party colleagues on Bray Town Council with me who are people of the highest integrity. This reinforces my belief that good people can make a real difference in the political system. I am a determined person and I will not let the very negative treatment I am receiving from other councillors or local papers prevent me from continuing to represent the public interest".
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