Mayo council chief says he has no control over media ban from meetings
Council chief Kevin Kelly responds to calls from councillors for safety partnership meetings to be open to the media
The Chief Executive of Mayo County Council told councillors that he has no control over the decision to bar the media from attending policing committee meetings.
Kevin Kelly, Chief Executive of Mayo County Council made the comment following calls by a number of councillors to allow the local media to attend meetings of the Mayo Local Community Safety Partnership (MLCSP).
The MLCSP is a new, statutory, multi-agency body which replaced the Joint Policing Committees and brings together residents, community groups, state services such as Gardaí, HSE and Tusla, and local councillors to identify and address local safety issues.
The partnership voted to continue to bar the local media from attending in order to 'take time to build trust and relationships within the new partnership' and instead a press release will be issued within 24 hours of each meeting and a public meeting open to the public and media will be held at the end of 2026.
A notice of motion proposed by Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne and co-signed by 15 other councillors came before Monday's monthly meeting of Mayo County Council where they have called for the MLCSP to 'lift its embargo on the local media from covering meetings.
In proposing the motion, Cllr Kilcoyne said that without accountability from the local media, the MLCSP will become a secret society and it was important for democracy that meetings are covered.
“There was always accountability that the press could come in and listen to what was said and bring back the story to the public. We were elected by the people and we are accountable to them.
“Two thirds of the councillors on the MLCSP have voted for these meetings to be open but instead meetings are closed and there will be a public meeting once a year. Apart from that it will operate as a secret society for the rest of the year,” he said.
His motion was supported by Fine Gael councillor Donna Sheridan who said that democracy was under threat from 'fake news' and omitting the media from meetings does not help.
“Democracy as a whole is under threat at the moment with fake news. We see all of these so-called journalists on Tic Tok putting their own views across and things being put out that are untrue. We are really lucky to have such professional reporters and journalists and we need to protect that,” she said.
Cllr Sheridan added that organisations should not be allowed to object to the media being present as it sets a bad precedent.
Cllr Blackie Gavin said he served on the JPC on Castlebar Town Council and any problems in the town were 'nipped in the bud' early with the help of the media.
“Shame on the people who decided the press should be excluded. This is a very serious issue that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency and I ask the chief executive to lift the embargo as a matter of urgency,” he said.
In response Mr Kelly said that the MLCSP was a separate entity from Mayo County Council and he had no control over whether the media were invited or not.