Galway County Council ordered a review of any ‘loose arrangements’ its staff had regarding use of private property for work on behalf of the local authority after fuel fraud allegations emerged in 2023.

The review of all Municipal Districts came to light last week at a WRC hearing in which a former Conamara-based supervisor accused of fuel fraud took an unfair dismissal case against the Council.

Michael Walsh from Maam challenged the decision to sack him and appealed on three grounds — breach of procedure, mitigating circumstances, and gravity of sanction.

Maria O’Connor, advocate/industrial organiser with SIPTU, said her member was never suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, and continued to work for a year afterwards, which was a breach of the Council’s procedure.

It was stated, in mitigation, that Mr Walsh’s father was not well, leaving him under stress and pressure to work his own farm and that of his father, alongside his day job with the Council during the Covid pandemic.

Ms O’Connor argued the sanction could have included demotion to a role of lesser responsibility, rather than dismissal.

Council Chief Executive, Liam Conneally, who acted as appeals officer, upheld the dismissal, a decision Mr Walsh said, “wrecked my life”, and “dragged my family’s good name down”.

“It really put me in a dark place,” he said, outlining how he had panic attacks and required therapy and medication.

Maam was a small place and he “felt the shame of being talked about” at Mass, in the local pub and shop.

“Mr Conneally said I stole and then retracted it — that’s how easy it is for things to slip out … my son was bullied in school … I’m dealing with my father who was told at a neighbour’s wedding that I stole €76,000 from Galway County Council,” he said.

“To have this thrown at me for getting the job done and doing the right thing. How you could do this to someone, it beggars belief … it’s wrecked my life. It’s wrong, and wrong to the core that we are here today,” Mr Walsh said.

He said a priest, GAA club chairman, and other ‘upstanding people’ in the community, including County Councillors, had written references vouching for him, although WRC adjudication officer Ewa Sobanska said she could attach minimal value to these because they were not given in evidence.

Mr Conneally said ethics was very important in local government.

“Local government is the form of government that is closest to the people. It requires trust of people for democracy to work.”

Mr Conneally said that at no stage did Mr Walsh say to him during their two-and-a-half-hour appeals meeting that the fuel he purchased for use in his personal vehicle was for work purposes.

“We wouldn’t be in the room if that had been the case,” he said.

When it was put to him that there were ‘blurred lines’ and that Mr Walsh had to use his own jeep to pull machinery, Mr Conneally said that practice was “highly unusual”.

He said the Council had its own machinery, and it also procured machines from plant hire companies who “dropped it to where we need it”.

Mr Walsh disputed this during cross-examination. He said there could be three or four ‘tar and chip’ jobs a day during road repair season in different parts of Conamara. He said he was responsible for making sure machinery was ready and available at each location and he transported it himself.

Mr Walsh said the plant hire would deliver the machines to the first job but not subsequent jobs. To suggest otherwise showed a disconnect between office workers in County Hall and the reality on the ground for outdoor staff, he said.

On claims that the sanction was too severe, Mr Conneally said there had been an “erosion of trust”, and that there was no longer trust between Mr Walsh and his line manager. Mr Conneally said the Council spent about €200m locally every year on goods and services.

“Every cent of that is public money and needs to be accounted for. We have checks and balances for procurement and there are policies and procedures around that,” he said.

Mr Conneally said the roads budget of the Council was €44m annually, including €8m for Conamara.

“To say that we’re depending on one staff member to store, haul or tow machines or vehicles or grit (with their own vehicles) — there is no need for that,” he said.

Mr Conneally said there was a “drip, drip feed” of information during the investigation. He said he had a duty to “the people we serve and the elected members who made budgetary and financial decisions” to uphold principles of truth, integrity, honesty, transparency, and public service.

He upheld the decision to dismiss Mr Walsh and said it was “reasonable and proportionate”.

Mr Conneally said he had ordered a review of all “loose arrangements” in other Municipal Districts, because “we need to be in control of our machines, our plant, our depots”.

Ms O’Connor of SIPTU produced a spreadsheet which showed three Council employees used LVP cards for around 150 transactions to the value of about €12,000 that was in breach of the local authority procedure.

Mr Walsh’s line manager had signed off on these transactions, even though Council policy was LVP cards were not to be used to purchase fuel.

Mr Conneally said he was “not aware he (line manager) signed off on them”, and perhaps they came under ‘exceptional circumstances’, which were allowed.

Ms O’Connor said three staff members’ use of the LVP to purchase €12,000 worth of fuel was “a clear breach of policy” but there was an absence of the “checks and balances” Mr Conneally had referred to as being so important to the Council.

“You can’t just enforce the policy on one member of staff,” she said.

In reply to a follow-up question from the Council’s Barrister, Owen Keany, Mr Conneally said those breaches were minor and “in a different world” compared with the allegations facing Mr Walsh.

On several occasions Mr Conneally confirmed to Ms O’Connor that he ‘took at face value’ what two of his staff members had said or concluded during earlier stages of the investigation and disciplinary process.

Mr Conneally said “theft” amounted to gross misconduct, although unprompted he retracted the word “theft”.

Ms O’Connor said her member took great pride in his job, went above and beyond for Galway County Council.

What Mr Walsh did “wasn’t ideal”, she said, but he had insisted the diesel was purchased for his personal vehicle that was used for work purposes — something his superior was always aware of.

She said this was a classic case of “there was no issue until there was a problem”.

Mr Keany said at no stage during the investigation, disciplinary process or appeals process did Mr Walsh state the fuel was used in a way that the Council derived a benefit. He had admitted the allegations and had now changed his story, he said.

Ms Sobanska, the adjudicator, said she would publish her findings in the coming weeks and both sides could appeal to the Labour Court if unsatisfied with her recommendations.

Pictured: Liam Conneally, Chief Executive of Galway County Council, at the Galway County Council December 2024 Plenary meeting.