Galway Bay fm newsroom - This week's meeting of Galway City Council was briefly suspended after the Mayor of Galway was compared to Mussolini.
A row broke out as councillors discussed the minutes of a previous meeting held in December.
A dispute arose between the chair, Mayor of Galway Councillor Collette Connolly, and Councillor Alan Cheevers, after Councillor Cheevers attempted to make a point centered on the minutes of the December meeting.
Mayor Connolly questioned the relevance of the contribution being made and ruled clarification of the minutes was not the correct forum for the statement being made.
However Councillor Cheevers insisted that he be allowed to make his point, leading to a back and forth exchange that led to Mayor Connolly ask that her ruling as chair be respected.
She said the meeting was time limited with a very busy agenda - but noted a large amount of time was being spent on the minutes of the December meeting and they had to move on.
Councillor Cheevers then accused her of running the meeting like Mussolini - a statement which saw Mayor Connolly abruptly suspend the meeting.
Once proceedings resumed, a member of staff reminded all present of the necessity to respect the rulings of the chair.
It was added that Councillors right to be heard could be revoked if they failed to do so - or they could be asked to leave the meeting.
