A Fianna Fáil councillor said she has resigned from a committee that tracks the progress of Limerick’s directly elected mayor, after she claimed that John Moran had made a “demeaning” comment about her attendance record.
Cllr Catherine Slattery, a local representative in Limerick City, walked out of a council meeting on Monday after Moran – according to local media and a number of those present – made a comment about her attendance at implementation committee meetings.
The episode is the latest in a long-running deterioration of relations between Moran and a number of local councillors. Moran, who is less than two years into his term, is the first directly elected mayor in the country. Limerick became the first county to hold an election for the unique role in 2024, which Moran – a former Department of Finance secretary general – won.
“I voted for John Moran, if the truth be told, I’m sorry now I voted for him, but I did,” Slattery said.
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Slattery, who has been a councillor since 2019 and worked for local Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea before that, has been serving as príomhchomhairleoir at Limerick city and county council since June 2025.
Part of the príomhchomhairleoir’s role is to attend implementation committee meetings, which monitor and support the mayor’s term of office.
According to local media reports, and the accounts of a number of councillors who were present, Moran argued during a discussion on Monday about broadcasting the implementation committee that there could be issues with broadcasting the meeting. According to those present, he argued that councillors sit on the implementation committee and so can feed back what has happened.
It is understood that Slattery pointed out that there was only one councillor on the committee, and Moran is understood to have commented off-microphone that there should be two – if she would “turn up” to them.
Slattery told The Irish Times that she became upset and left the meeting, which was adjourned shortly afterwards. She returned and asked Moran for an apology. “I asked him, because he said the comment off-mic, I asked him to repeat the comment. I asked him to apologise and retract it, and he just completely ignored me as if I wasn’t even there,” she said.
At the meeting, Moran reportedly said he was “equally upset” and suggested adjourning, adding that he did not “want accusations put out into the public domain about me or about meetings which I chair which are insubstantiated”.
A spokesman for Moran declined to comment.
