Media banned from attending Kilkenny County Council strategic policy committee meetings

Members of Kilkenny County Council have banned the media and the public from attending strategic policy committee meetings.

Members of the press have reported on these meetings in the past and it is common practice in other local authority areas across the country.

At the AGM of Kilkenny County Council on Friday Councillor Malcolm Noonan (Greens) asked that a proposal contained in a Standing Order to exclude the press and members of the public from SPC's be removed.

19 members voted to exclude the press and public while five members voted against it.  Cllrs Noonan, Tomás Breathnach and Denis Hynes (Labour) David Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) and Eugene McGuinness (Independent) voted to allow media and public access with all Fianna Fail members and the vast majority of Fine Gael members endorsing the ban.

Cllr Mary Hilda Kavanagh (Fine Gael) disagreed with Cllr Noonan's proposal to continue to allow press to attend the meetings.

"I don't agree, I think that they should be held in committee," she said.

Director of Services, Tim Butler also addressed the meeting on the matter.

“At the SPC stage policy is being developed and you have non-[elected] members there who mightn’t be used to developing policy or might feel inhibited if they’re going to say something and there’s members of the public at it. It might inhibit them from contributing," he added.

Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists has commented on the move on Twitter describing it as 'An  inauspicious start to a new council. Local government should be open and transparent.'

Speaking following the AGM of Kilkenny County Council, Green Party Councillor Malcolm Noonan said that the new term of the council had gotten off to a bad start. 
'At a time when many local authorities are opting to live stream meetings to improve transparency and participation, Kilkenny County Council is introducing media and public restrictions to meetings. I find it an astonishing turn of events and wholly unwarranted' said Cllr Noonan.

The role of the SPC’s is to assist the council in the formulation, development and review of policy; reflect the major functions or services of a local authority within the broader context, be tailored to the size, membership and administrative resources of a local authority and have one third of their membership drawn from sectors relevant to the committees’ work. The SPC’s bring together both elected members, and people actively working with social, economic, cultural and environmental bodies to develop and review policies related to council services. The SPCs provide elected members with external views as they discharge their strategic role in the development of the local authority, including their policy development and oversight roles within the local authority.

There are five SPC committees - Economic Development, Enterprise Support & Tourism, Planning & Development Policy; Transportational Policy/Mobility Management & Water Services; Housing; Environment Protection, Climate& Energy and Community, Cultural & Fire Services.

Cllr Noonan said that the Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) meetings were pivotal to the workings of council; helping to shape policy in housing, planning, community and culture and environment and climate change. He said that in the past media would attend and reporting on the outputs helped shape public discourse and make ultimately for better policy. 

'I have checked with colleagues in other local authorities and no such restrictions exist. It is in my view a retrograde step to exclude the media from reporting on matters of public interest and where so much public money is at stake. Last year Transparency International Ireland, painted a rather bleak report on transparency and accountability in the Irish Local Government system. I would imagine that Kilkenny County Council will not fare too well in the next report if standing orders are not amended to remove the stipulation on media and public restrictions to meetings'.

Cllr Noonan said that he hoped that the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Local Government Audit Service would take the matter up with the local authority to remove all barriers to public participation in local democracy. ' This is a matter of significant public interest and cannot be allowed to prevail over the lifetime of this sitting of Kilkenny County Council. It sets a dangerous precedent for our democracy. We need a standardised approach across Local Government for full media and public access and where resources are available live streaming of meetings should be the default.' concluded Cllr Noonan