It has emerged that Meath County Council CEO, Jackie Maguire, sat in on meetings regarding the Meath County Development Plan in which matters in relation to Glenveagh Homes, the company her son works for, were discussed.

Crucially the subject of conflict of interest arose at those meetings as FF councillor Aisling Dempsey works for Glenveagh and always excluded herself from the discussions.

A number of councillors have told Meath Live they feel the CEO should have followed suit.

One said, ‘ If Jackie Maguire was in any doubt about how seriously councillors take a conflict of interest, or even the suggestion of one, she would have known by Aisling’s actions, what the correct course of action was.

‘Aisling could have remained in the room and said nothing while her employer was discussed but she would have been compromised and knew it so she did the right thing and left.

‘While the CEO is not employed by Glenveagh she surely knew her son is and once the expression conflict of interest was used by a councillor it should have set off alarm bells for the CEO.

‘That it didn’t was an error of judgement.’

Aisling Dempsey did the right thing