Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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229. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when local authorities can expect guidelines from the working group on live streaming council meetings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3844/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Section 45(5) of the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended) provides that a local authority may, by standing orders, regulate the right of members of the public and members of the media to be present at meetings of the local authority. This provision includes the making, by standing orders, of rules in relation to the recording or relaying of the proceedings as they take place or at a later stage.

On the 30 October 2020, my Department issued Circular LG 07/2020, “Guidelines for supplementary standing orders regulating the proceedings in relation to remote meetings of the Council”, which references public attendance at such meetings.

It is ultimately a matter for the elected members of each local authority to decide in the first instance if they wish to webcast local authority meetings and then to provide for the necessary budgetary resources to enable the provision of the necessary facilities to allow for meetings to be webcast or live streamed.

Following the publication in 2020 of the Independent Review of the Role and Remuneration of Local Authority Elected Members, led by Ms Sara Moorhead SC, a working group of local government stakeholders was established to examine the non-pay related recommendations of the Review and to draw up an Action Plan in that regard. This included actions examining the possibility of using video conferencing facilities to allow remote attendance at, as well as the live streaming of, local authority meetings. This work is ongoing.

A number of local authorities have invested in the necessary technology and are live streaming or webcasting Council meetings. Important good practice learnings can be taken from their experiences, which can be shared across the local authority network.