Mayo County Council chief proposes to exclude media from SPC meetings

REPORTING of meetings of Strategic Policy Committee meetings in the new term of Mayo County Council will be banned if proposals supported by the Council's Chief Executive are adopted.

Councillors were informed that under new proposals for the operation of the six Strategic Policy Committees (SPC) meetings will not be open to the media. Since the establishment of the SPCs in 2000 they have been open to the media to attend and report on but Chief Executive Kevin Kelly told councillors that he believes that SPC's will operate to their potential better without journalists present.

He made his comments at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council following a question from Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne.

“I would think the press should not be present until such time as you bring forward the policy here at the full chamber. The idea of a policy discussion is you can have an open and frank discussion and you develop a policy looking at all issues and then when you have a draft policy it can go into the public domain,” he said.

The revelation received a mixed response from councillors with many stating they will oppose any moves to omit the media from future SPC meetings.

“I would totally reject a proposal whereby the press would be excluded from SPCs,” said Cllr Kilcoyne. “The press have always attended the SPCs and they are able to report to the general public. I am taking from your suggestion that the press will be excluded from the SPCs.”

Mr Kelly replied that he was not trying to exclude anyone but he wanted all members of SPCs to be able to have open and frank discussions without part of a policy being brought into the public domain at too early a stage.

Cllr Kilcoyne commented that there seems to be an attempt to curtain reporting while Ballina-based councillor Mark Duffy agreed that the media should be present.

“We need to bring democracy and conversations closer to people as opposed to further away. Many move to exclude the press and coverage of discussions like this I would completely reject,” he said.

However Fine Gael councillor Michael Burke said he saw the point the Chief Executive was making and would not have a problem with his proposal.

“When you are creating policy you don't need media coverage for the early stage of it and it could be very important. Where there is serious policy is being written and let's be honest over the last few years the policy hasn't been great coming from the SPC.

“There are times we always welcome media coverage but there are times when we meet in workshops we put honest opinions on the table. Sometimes when the press are present people play to the press and don't decide policy in a fair and balanced way. It would support the CEO on that in the best way possible,” he said.

The SPCs are made up of councillors, council officials and representatives of social partners and voluntary and community groups. The six SPCs are Housing; Climate change and Environment; Roads and Transportation; Economic and Enterprise Development; Planning and Corporate Development and Community, Integration and Recreation.

Fianna Fáil councillor Damien Ryan accepted that the council needs a robust and progressive policy on the structure of SPC meetings but feels that the meetings should be held in public.

He proposed that nominations for positions on the SPCs from representatives from the social partners and voluntary and community groups should be advertised as soon as possible.

He was supported by Cllr Jarlath Munnelly who felt that the positions on the SPCs should be filled by September but there needed to be further debate on how meetings are run.

Mr Kelly reiterated to the councillors that his proposals were not about excluding the press but about ensuring the objectives of the SPCs are met.

“It is not about excluding the press or excluding anyone. It is about facilitating the best discussion possible.

“If you look across the country I bet you will only find a handful of local authorities who have the press at SPC meetings and that is no offence to the press. When you have operations that will impact on individual areas it's always difficult to have that detailed discussion in a balanced way in a scenario where it is in the papers the next day.

“It is a matter for the members how they conduct it but I would like to see those SPCs functioning much better and having more of a role for the councillors in devising what the policy of this council is and bringing it forward. That is what I would like to do,” he concluded.