There’s been a surge in ethics complaints about Dublin city councillors

In just three months in 2024, while the current cohort of councillors was still new, nearly 100 complaints about councillors’ conduct were sent to Dublin City Council, show council figures.

That’s almost 24 times as many grievances as all of 2023, when only four were lodged. 

Generally, reports of councillors' alleged unethical conduct have significantly grown compared to 2023, figures show.

“I wish to confirm that 4 complaints made under the Code of Conduct for Councillors were received in 2023 and 59 received in 2025,” said a council spokesperson. 

The council has not said who made the complaints, or who they are about. 

Initially, it had refused to reveal the 2024 figures in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

On 10 December 2025, over a year after appealing its decision to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC), a senior executive officer for the council sent a letter showing the figure, cc-ing the OIC. 

But it’s still fighting not to release its internal correspondence and minutes of meetings about those complaints before the OIC, the council staffer confirmed in response to a follow up email.

People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy, who had filed a complaint alleging an ethics violation by his colleague independent Councillor Gavin Pepper in 2024, says he hasn’t heard of any progress.

He’s surprised about the volume of reports that summer, Reddy said. “I’d thought there were maybe 5-10 at most in that period,” he said in a text message last month. 

Other councillors say they would like to see greater transparency about these complaints as they mount, and an overhaul of the process that would place responsibility for reviewing them with an independent body.

“In general, this mechanism needs to be strengthened,” said Green Party Councillor Janet Horner, who also expressed surprise about the number of complaints.

A spokesperson for the council did not directly address a query asking if it has made any headway in examining the 98 grievances filed in the summer of 2024.

But they said that it has a protocol for dealing with these reports to ensure fair procedures, “under which decisions on complaints about a Councillor’s conduct are made”. 

Its protocol has a confidentiality clause, saying “that as far as is reasonably possible, the confidentiality of the process and their privacy will be respected”.

All apologies 

It’s unclear if the 98 complaints filed in the summer of 2024 centre on a handful of councillors or many. 

The Department of Local Government’s Code of Conduct for councillors lays out a swirl of best-practice advice.

And the council’s protocol for addressing alleged ethics breaches suggests that council members accused of misconduct get notified. 

“They shall be provided with a copy, or a redacted copy, where appropriate, of the complaint,” it says. 

Pepper – the independent councillor who is subject to the complaint made by Reddy, the People Before Profit councillor in 2024 – did not respond to queries emailed on 18 December, including whether he’d been informed of other reports, and if so what they were about and if he’d had to take any action as a result.

Karyn Moynihan has lodged one of the 59 complaints about councillors’ conduct in 2025, she says.

Hers centres on an Instagram story which cropped up on the social media account of independent Councillor Philip Sutcliffe on the day of the presidential election in late October last year.

Two stories appeared on Sutcliffe’s account that day, both showing spoiled ballot papers. One featured a wasted vote for conservative campaigner Maria Steen, who didn’t make the cut to be on the ballot.

The other was covered in racist and homophobic refrains, including one that called for the genocide of Roma people. 

Sutcliffe later apologised for the appearance of the latter and how hurtful it must have been. His statement said someone had tagged him in the offensive ballot, and it “accidentally” got shared out on his accounts. 

On 3 November, the Lord Mayor, Fine Gael Councillor Ray McAdam, read out a similar apology at the council chamber on his behalf, which frustrated Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan, who said Sutcliffe ought to have read it himself. 

McAdam said he had agreed to help address the issue under the agenda of Lord Mayor's Business. 

Moynihan, who has put in a complaint to the council about Sutcliffe, said that a city official initially got back to acknowledge it and asked if they could share her name and a copy of the complaint with Sutcliffe “for his right of reply”.

“I agreed and haven’t heard anything since, that was back at the beginning of November,” she said on 17 December. 

Sutcliffe did not respond to queries sent on 18 December, including one asking if he got back to anyone personally about complaints, and whether he considered the public apology his response to individual complainants.

Things we don’t do here 

Horner, the Green Party councillor, says that in Northern Ireland, the process for addressing alleged violations of the ethics code is more robust and independent. 

Complaints about the behaviour of councillors in the North are filed with the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards, who’s in charge of investigating independently, says its how-to guide for sending them.  

“I think we should look at something like that to see if it would work,” Horner said.

Here, Dublin City Council’s protocol for navigating ethics-related reports says the council might forward them to An Garda Síochána or the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) if it sees fit. 

Other potential actions include recommending a councillor to take a training course, mediation or “writing to the Councillor concerned to remind them of the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Councillors”, it says.

It’s unclear if it has done any of those things about the recent complaints. 

One challenge of reforming the process to boost accountability for councillors is that punishment levelled can be spun into a “martyrdom narrative or even worse a loss in the courts”, says Social Democrats Councillor Karl Stanley.

That’s not to say he doesn’t want those violating the code not to face any consequences, he said. “But I also understand why it’s processing very slowly.”

Ultimately, Stanley said, he is in favour of an independent body like SIPO to take charge of processing them. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Local Government has not yet responded to a query sent on Monday asking if it has plans to put a body like SIPO in charge of investigating alleged breaches of the ethics code for councilors. 

But what about a potential cascade of vexatious complaints made just to prompt stress and pointless bureaucracy? 

The Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner's how-to-complain guide says it doesn’t investigate every single report it gets.

“Your complaint will be assessed and a decision will be made based on the information you provide whether your complaint can, and should, be investigated,” it says. 

But if the commissioner does examine it and finds someone guilty of breaching the code, it can lead to “censuring or suspending the Councillor”. 

In the most serious cases, “the Commissioner can disqualify someone from serving as a councillor for up to 5 years”, says its guide.