The ban on live animals in this year's Christmas crib outside the Mansion House will go ahead despite calls for the "scrooge-like" change to be reversed.
Lord Mayor Caroline Conroy issued a fiery defence of the animal ban from the crib and criticised Fine Gael for an "opportunist political attack" at a meeting of councillors on Monday night. She also told councillors live animals will not be part of the crib this year as the design of the crib is the responsibility of the Lord Mayor of the day.
A life-sized stable with donkeys, goats and sheep has been erected outside the Mansion House as part of the Christmas festivities every year since 1995. Many children living in the city see farm animals for the first time at the crib.
Read more: Lord Mayor silent ahead of 'last chance' to reverse farm animal ban from crib
Lord Mayor Conroy introduced plans to ban the live animal element of the crib and add other more "inclusive" elements which the council agreed with at a previous DCC meeting. A Christmas post box, a sleigh children can get into, a post box and allowing children to explore the garden at the Mansion House are a few of the new features the Lord Mayor proposed to introduced.
Green Cllr Conroy said she decided a "significant revamp" was needed to make the crib "better" this Christmas and added previous cribs were like a "shed" citizens walked through and saw a couple of farm animals behind a screen at the end. She said the changes were "not a culture war" but an attempt to do things better and said a busy city centre is not the place for farm animals.
Fine Gael councillors put forward an emergency motion to have the animals reinstated in the crib but the motion was ruled out by the Lord Mayor . Fine Gael's leader on the Council James Geoghegan said it was "unfortunate" the Lord Mayor chose to attack Fine Gael in her defence of the changes she intended to implement.
He defended Fine Gael's actions and said they had made a criticism of the Lord Mayor's "political" decision to remove animals from the crib and said the controversy was down to the public's reaction to it. Independent Councillor John Lyons criticised Fine Gael for their "desperate" attack on the Green Party.
He said Fine Gael had "no care for animal welfare" and just wanted to score "cheap political points". Labour leader on the Council Dermot Lacey suggested the farm animals could be housed in St Stephen's Green and supported Cllr Lyons sentiment
The Social Democrats also showed support for the Lord Mayor and her position on the crib. Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn also had a motion to ban the animals from the crib "forevermore" which was also ruled out by the Lord Mayor.
The perceived ban on live animals sparked a major backlash from the much loved former president, Mary McAleese, and Fine Gael Minister Patrick O'Donovan.
Read next:
Inspectors of illegal Coolock dump's cars set on fire while visiting site
Young man stabbed in Dublin city centre apartment as woman arrested
Tent in Dublin back garden advertised on Airbnb for €35 a night
Council pay €400,000 to remove 'section' of illegal Coolock dump plaguing locals
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
