Waterford County Council has confirmed that it has dismissed a council employee for breaches of its code of conduct for staff, but declined to elaborate on the reasons for the dismissal.
Councillors learned of the dismissal in a short e-mail on Wednesday from acting county secretary, Tess O'Brien, which pointed out that, given that appeal mechanisms were open to the employee, the council would not be commenting further on the matter at the moment.
"Following an internal investigation by Waterford County Council, the employment of a member of staff has been terminated as a result of breaches of the code of conduct for employees," said the statement.
"In the interest of privacy of the individual, and as there are appeal mechanisms available to the person concerned, further comment on the matter is not appropriate at this time," said Ms O'Brien in the e-mail, sent to all 23 elected members of the council.
Contacted by The Irish Times, Ms O'Brien confirmed that a member of staff had been dismissed for breaches of a code of conduct following an internal inquiry, but she declined to say whether the staff member had been under suspension by the council for some time.
In April 2005, Waterford County Council suspended an official on full pay following a preliminary internal inquiry by the council after a member of the public made complaints about the activities of a council official.
At that time, the council issued a brief statement confirming "an internal investigation has been initiated and the matter has been referred to the Garda Síochána" before going on to state that no further comment would be appropriate pending the outcome of the investigation.
The official was subsequently arrested in December 2005 on suspicion of having committed an offence under the Corruption Act by gardaí investigating alleged irregularities in the planning department, and was questioned for several hours before being released without charge.