‘I’m not sure why I’m here, we’re not even attempting to make policy’ - Mayo SPC hears

‘Why am I here?’, many of us have surely asked ourselves in a work meeting.

Cliona Boland wondered that existential question aloud last Thursday in the municipal district meeting room, above the canteen in Áras an Chontae.

Breaking the usual rhythm and hum of the Mayo County Council Environment and Climate Change SPC meeting, Cliona Boland told the meeting, “I’m not sure why I’m here some of the time.”

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In an impassioned plea she urged the elected councillors to be more proactive in creating policies, “you are elected for a reason and you have the ability to make policy here or create it, or at least debate it and dictate it. I just am always concerned that we're not even attempting to make policy in the way that this is structured.”

The barrister noted that while the Local Government Act did take away a lot of the powers of the local authorities, the Strategic Policy Committees were created to give councillors “the ability to actually create policy within these to bring back to your colleagues on the main council.” 

Pushing back on the idea that policy comes from the relevant government department, she said knew “that other county councils allow their SPCs to be run in a different manner, and so I really have to push back a little bit. I don't fully agree that every policy comes from the department. Obviously, we're bound by limitations. That doesn't mean we can't come up with policy.”

Chair of the Environment & Climate Change SPC, Cllr Gerry Murray responded that in his 25 years of local government, “nobody’s been more frustrated than me” and “the latitude that councillors have in relation to policy is pretty limited, and whatever we formulate and try to incorporate has to be, unfortunately, in compliance with government policy. That's unfortunately how the system works.”

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Director of Services at Mayo County Council, John Condon, noted that “whether you look at planning, or at environment, or things like speed limits, which were controversial in recent times, a lot of the actual parameters with which we can make policy are dictated nationally. We can't breach government policy.”

The Director of Services went on to invite every member of the committee to submit two policy areas that they would like to see the committee address at the next meeting.

Whether this leads to more policy being created at the SPC or a bluff being called will become clear at the next meeting in September.