A recent art exhibition in a well-known Waterford art space has been labelled ‘immoral’ by some concerned locals in Waterford.

Councillor Eamon Quinlan raised his points at a recent Plenary meeting of Waterford Council, where he says he received requests for the exhibition to be removed.

The artwork was understood to have told a ‘love story’ through an installation of different artwork pieces.

Cllr. Quinlan sat as a Director of the space where the installation was in place at the time.

Speaking at the Waterford Council meeting, Cllr. Quinlan said he received complaints from members of the public in relation to the artwork.

“I recently got a series of phone calls from members of the public who were taking issue with an art exhibition that was being put on in Waterford by a community arts organisation that I was on the board of as a director, appointed by the council. They wanted it stopped due to immorality. I decided to tell them that I thought that was a form of censorship and not my role as a director.

“It got me thinking though afterward just how much of a cottage industry has developed here over the years I and virtually every councillor in here serve on multiple boards of multiple organisations across the county and city. They’re arts and community organisations, some are not-for-profit, some are educational, some are universities and some are even profit-making financial institutions like the Waterford Airport. All of us sit on these boards, yet there are no actual guidelines from the council.”

Liability

Councillor Quinlan questioned the council’s position when it came to financial liability that could fall on councillors if one were to be imposed on organisations that the majority of local representatives sit on.

“This is actually an area of tremendous liability”, continued Cllr. Quinlan, “If you’re on all these different boards you have a fiduciary responsibility to those boards and organisations, and yet the perception is that you’re there to look out for the council’s interests or the people of Waterford. That may not be possible in your role and in many cases, if the actions of the director are seen to be compromising, a financial liability can be passed on from the legal corporate entity to the directors.

“Is it that the councillor has to absorb that or does Waterford City and County Council absorb that? Realistically when I think back, we’ve put appointees on UCC, WIT, now SETU down through the years. These are large organisations with a tremendous amount of employees, and financial obligations depending on which councillor you get, you can get a completely different role or answers to various questions.  I think that’s something the council does need to look at.”

Following the meeting, additional council members from various political parties acknowledged that they had also got the same call as Cllr Quinlan, from those attempting to exert pressure on them to close an artists’ exhibition.

Senior Executive with Waterford Council, Ivan Grimes responded saying he is “not aware” of any guidance available at this time.

“I’m not aware of any guidance including national for local authority members who are also members of a board of directors. I don’t think we’d have the resource or capacity to prepare such guidance, but I would suggest to you that any individual who becomes a director of a company, have duties under the Companies Act and under the actual individual company’s constitution, so it really would vary from company to company what the responsibilities would be. We’ll certainly look and see if there’s anything readily available, but I don’t think we’d have the legal capacity to prepare such advice.”

Recently appointed CEO of Waterford Council, Sean McKeown added saying it is a “reasonable” request from Councillor Quinlan and that councillors are “wearing the hat” of the particular organisation they are representing, and would not be acting in a ‘councillor’ capacity.

“We are designating and appointing nominees from this chamber to the range of organisations that you’ve mentioned. Some are limited liability companies, charities, and ad hoc groups. I think it’s a fair request that we have an outline in terms of what your responsibilities are because once you go into that room, as you’ve said Councillor, you’re now wearing the hat and you’ve produced your responsibilities first and foremost to that organisation as a director.

“If you’re a director of the company, and yet you might think that you’re there representing the council’s views, but that’s not the case. We do however have training available.”

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