A WATCHDOG has suspended prominent Causeway Coast and Glens independent councillor Padraig McShane for two months over a complaint dating back to 2016.
Mr McShane learned his fate during a public hearing of the Local Government Commissioner for Standards.
The suspension date will come into force on April 8 and run until May 18, the day local council elections are held in the north.
In July 2017, Mr McShane was given a suspended sentence for assaulting a PSNI officer and other offences at an Orange Order parade in Ballycastle a year earlier after a confrontation with loyalist bandsmen. In 2018, convictions for assaulting police and organising an un-notified protest were overturned.
However, a conviction for disorderly behaviour was upheld on appeal.
It is understood a complaint was made to the Commissioner for Standards by former DUP councillor John Finlay, who has since died, in the days following the Ballycastle incident.
Mr McShane was brought before the commissioner for an alleged breach of paragraph 4.2 of the code of conduct for councillors, which deals with conduct that brings the position of councillor or their local authority into “disrepute”.
Mr McShane stood down as a Causeway Coast and Glens councillor in May 2019 but was co-opted back into the local authority in October that year.
Last year an audit office report found that two land deals agreed by the council may not have been lawful. Mr McShane and TUV leader Jim Allister had separately asked the audit office to examine the council's role in the deals. The independent councillor also raised his concerns directly with the Department for Communities, which ordered the audit in November 2020.
During the hearing, assistant commissioner Katrin Shaw acknowledged Mr McShane’s role in local governance. She also said that since 2016 there have been no further incidents and that Mr McShane has “facilitated engagement between nationalist protesters and loyalist band members, built bridges and helped keep the peace”.
Mr McShane, who represented himself at the hearing, said he was delighted with the outcome.
"The suspension was for two months it is in essence a technical acquittal,” he said.
"In real terms what this decision means is that I will miss one full council meeting. That meeting will be limited in its context and agenda owing to imminent elections.”
Mr McShane said he was satisfied the commissioner recognised and credited him with the task he had undertaken in relation to governance issues in Causeway Coast and Glens Council.
"The suspension will conclude at the local government elections and will not prevent me seeking a new mandate from the people of the Glens of Antrim," he said.
An appeal can be made to the High Court.
