Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

354. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if there are plans to provide new guidelines to county and city councils allowing them to hold in-person meetings that last longer than two hours each, particularly as some members have to travel for two hours each way to attend such meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52309/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Council meetings are an integral and critical part of local democracy through which elected councils carry out statutory reserved functions and provide policy direction and oversight to local authorities. Arrangements for Council meetings are a matter for elected members who must ensure, in accordance with the relevant legislation, the effective discharge of Council business, including statutory obligations.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, in making such arrangements, elected Councils have had to take account of public health measures and advice to protect the health of both elected members attending and local authority employees required to support council meetings, as well as members of the public and/or media who wish to attend. In that context, in September 2020, the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG), the Local Authority Members’ Association (LAMA) and the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) jointly agreed standard operating guidance for attendance at Council meetings. Among a range of other matters, the guidance suggested that, reflecting good practice, attendance at meetings should be kept to a recommended maximum of 1 hour 55 minutes.

As elected members convene their Council meetings in physical locations once more, each local authority has particular circumstances with regard to the size of their Council chambers or other available meeting facilities, as well as the number of elected members, officials and members of the media and public attending. In this context, while there may be no ‘one size fits all’ approach regarding arrangements for meetings, it is important for elected members to remain cognisant of current public health advice and good practice to ensure that Council meetings can proceed in as safe a manner as possible.