A Monaghan councillor became involved in a heated debate on the powers of the Standards in Public Office Commission at a recent County Council meeting.
Sinn Féin's Brian McKenna passed a motion calling for SIPO to have the ability to penalise office holders found to be in breach of regulations.
However, Independent Councillor Seamus Treanor claimed his "freedom of speech" was being threatened.
At a recent sitting of Monaghan County Council, Brian McKenna requested that the Council writes to Minister for Local Government, Peter Burke, to request penalties be introduced for breaches of SIPO regulations.
Brian McKenna says this has been discussed by councillors before and called for SIPO to "be given the power to hand out penalties".
His motion was passed and seconded by party colleague Cathy Bennett.
However, Hugh McElvaney then claimed that Councillor McKenna "wants to sanction Seamus Treanor".
Independent councillor Seamus Treanor said it was "hard to believe that Sinn Féin is looking to re-introduce Section 31".
He further claimed that Councillor McKenna was "trying to get Section 31 brought back in, when Gerry Adams could not speak".
Seamus Treanor labelled Councillor McKenna a "disgrace", spoke about his "freedom of speech", and added that he is "proud" of every word he has ever said.
Councillor McKenna said he would not be bullied and that the motion was "about the issue, not an individual".
Seamus Treanor went on to label Sinn Féin the "30 pieces of silver party", but Councillor McKenna said that "30 pieces of silver is what brought you into politics".
In January of this year, SIPO found against Seamus Treanor, who was deemed to have breached standards in public office in his canvassing leaflet in the run up to the local elections in 2019.
The leaflet contained a statement from Councillor Treanor in relation to immigration, and the Commission said he deliberately adopted "emotive, open-ended and accusatory language without reference to source or evidence".
