FEW Fermanagh councillors are attending the regular meetings between the Western Trust and the local Council because they feel they are “a waste of energy.”
At the recent SOAS meeting at Fermanagh House, compere Alan Rodgers quizzed the two councillors on the panel about the low attendance at the Council’s health committee meetings with representatives from the Trust.
Mr Rodgers noted only two or three councillors usually attended the meetings, where there was little discussion about SWAH emergency general surgery (EGS), and where the elected representatives’ questions often seemed to be “fobbed off” by the Trust officials.
Cllr Eddie Roofe said he had attended the “first five or six” meetings, but explained they were frustrating endeavours.
“We have to put the questions [to the Trust] a week in advance. If the question is one they don’t like, it gets bounced back in a different form,” he said.
“If we ask a question outside of that, which I tried multiple times over that time, they’ll say we’ll have a look at that and get back to you, and we never hear of it again.
“We push it again and again, and the same questions are getting asked, again and again, and the same response comes back.
“That’s the reality of what we’ve got.
“The five or maybe six meetings I attended, and at that stage, to be perfectly honest, I felt it was just a waste of energy and it just annoyed me for the rest of the week.”
Cllr Gannon agreed that the format was frustrating, and also pointed out the meetings were held during daytime hours, which most councillors would have to take time off work to attend.
“The likes of me and Eddie and most councillors are working people, we have jobs,” he explained.
“The Trust refuse to move it to evenings, and I wonder if that is convenient for them because they know the likes of myself or Eddie will actually be able to take them.
“We have day jobs and don’t have the flexibility to be able to go into the meeting, a meeting where they quite often refuse to answer questions.”