At least two formal complaints have been made against Independent Dublin city councillor Gavin Pepper in relation to alleged breaches of the local authority’s code of ethics.
Dublin City Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare confirmed on Tuesday night the council was investigating ethics complaints against a sitting councillor.
Mr Shakespeare was speaking at a council meeting proposed by Independent councillor Barry Heneghan to address the “urgent and growing issue of misinformation, particularly regarding immigration”.
There was an onus on councillors to stand united against “racist rhetoric” and “harmful misinformation” which represented “a real threat to public safety”, Cllr Heneghan said.
Cllr Pepper has called for mass deportations and uses the hashtag #Irelandisfull in social media posts which focus on immigration.
Mr Shakespeare said complaints that councillors had breached the provisions of the Local Government Act could be made to the council’s ethics registrar. The council would examine any such complaints and “if we form a view there has been a breach of the legislation, and believe there has, we then escalate it to a full investigation carried out by an external professional”, he said.
Asked by Labour councillor Dermot Lacey if the council was currently investigating any complaints, Mr Shakespeare said: “yes would be the answer”.
People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy told The Irish Times following the meeting that he has lodged two formal ethics complaints against Cllr Pepper which are currently under investigation.
The first relates to a phone call he said he received five weeks ago from an individual on a withheld number. The caller “said I was spreading lies about councillor Pepper’s family” Cllr Reddy said.
Cllr Reddy’s second complaint related to an incident on September 17th at a committee meeting of the council’s north west area, which both councillors represent.
Cllr Reddy had proposed a motion condemning attacks on asylum seekers in Finglas and the “spread of hateful misinformation about migrants”.
At the meeting, Cllr Pepper said Cllr Reddy was “calling all in north west [Dublin] racists and fascists”.
Cllr Reddy said he had made a complaint to the council’s ethics registrar on the grounds that this was “slander”. He said he was reluctant to make complaints against other councillors but did so “because I felt that if I didn’t, he might do the same to someone else”.
In response to queries from The Irish Times, Cllr Pepper said he would not be commenting as “there’s a process in relation to allegations made against people” and he did not want to interfere with “due process”.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Cllr Pepper said he himself was a victim of “misinformation and disinformation” in relation to allegations that he was a “terrorist” and a “landlord”.
Cllr Pepper then began to speak about missing children in State care, but stopped and said he was confused about what he wanted to say.
Mr Shakespeare at the meeting said it was open to him to implement sanctions against a councillor if a complaint was upheld but “what those are, I am not going to speculate”.
The council on Wednesday said the complaints process has been invoked and it would not be appropriate to comment further while the process was ongoing.
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