'The landscape has totally changed' - Calls for Kilkenny to take historic step forward

Watching council meetings from your living room may become reality in the coming years following a motion on the matter at May's plenary meeting of Kilkenny County Council.

The motion raised by Labour's Cllr Sean Ó hArgain requested the council executive examine the possibility of live streaming Kilkenny County Council meetings in the future, a motion passed unanimously by local representatives.

A council spokesperson has subsequently committed to preparing a report in the next six to eight months into the feasibility of streaming to the public.

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Kilkenny Live understands that at least eleven councils currently stream their monthly meetings, via their local authority websites or via the YouTube or Microsoft Teams platforms.

"It is time in my view that we joined this trend to allow full democratic access to all citizens to our monthly proceedings," Cllr Ó hArgain claimed.

The city based councillor previously raised the matter when he was a member of the defunct Borough Council but believes now is the time to take a digital leap forward.

"Access to our meetings for those who are of different abilities is a fundamental right in my view. It is now well established as a part of the democratic practice in Dáil and Seanad Éireann via Oireachtas TV and we all saw the huge engagement with the debates of Oireachtas Committees in recent years.

"The ability of members of the public to view previous debates and contributions on issues means that members of the public get a much clearer understanding of how democratic decisions are made and what our inputs as elected councillors and indeed as members of our executive are on each issue," he claimed.

"The motion calls for an examination of the issues involved, including the costs involved. I want to make it clear, however, that this is with a view to how we can make this happen. We should not be an outlier in allowing maximum democratic access to our proceedings.

"The citizens of Kilkenny have the same rights as those in Donegal, Sligo, Dublin, Cork and other counties and we should ensure that we embrace the spirit of democratic accountability in the way those councils have," Cllr Ó hArgain concluded. 

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