Council housing committee approves media access to meetings

MAYO County Council’s Special Policy Committee (SPC) on Housing has voted to allow continued media access to their meetings.

In July, Mayo County Council’s Chief Executive, Kevin Kelly, proposed that the media would not be allowed to report on council SPCs.

Members of the media are currently permitted to attend meetings Mayo County Council, the four municipal district councils and SPCs. However, councillors and council staff regularly hold workshops where the media are not present.

In the past year, the elected councillors held meetings with Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris that the media could not attend. Some councillors publicly aired their views on the meetings afterwards.

Cllr Peter Flynn, who chairs Mayo County Council’s new Housing SPC, said he felt the media should be allowed to attend their meetings but said he was ‘open’ to having some matters dealt with ‘in committee’ if other members felt that it was appropriate.

When asked to explain the rationale for not having media present at meetings, Tom Gilligan, Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Housing, said that some committees may be more comfortable discussing policy in private.

Cllr Flynn said he felt it was ‘important that people can see that we are trying to make a change and that we’re trying to make a difference’ to the ongoing housing shortage in Mayo.

The Fine Gael councillor added that there was ‘nothing to stop’ the committee from meeting in private if they felt it was necessary.

His proposal to continue having SPC meetings in public was seconded by his Fine Gael colleague, Cllr Alma Gallagher.