“I’m hoping third time will be the charm”.
So Cllr Adrienne Wallace told colleagues as she sought to overturn previous votes banning the live streaming of council meetings.
The public is represented at such gatherings by the media while interested individuals too can get a pass to attend.
But moves were made in 2020 and in 2022 to expand that to include output online for a wider audience, both times voted against.
For a third time, Cllr Wallace tabled a motion at Monday’s meeting and again was supported by just one other councillor present (Andy Gladney), the rest voting against.
In her reaction to KCLR News she asked “What are Carlow councillors so afraid of, I mean, we’re talking about transparency, opening up the doors of how the decisions are made, of how local government operates and for the third time they have refused this request, we have seen that this is a change that is already spreading, nine councils in the south, it’s the norm up in the north when it comes to local authorities and Carlow council are just digging in their heels in a quite conservative manner”.
But Cllr Wallace is undeterred and says it’s not the last time the motion will come before the grouping; “We think we’re going to keep trying, we have elections in a year and we hope we have a new makeup in the council who are willing to show people how they work and how decisions are made and exactly what type of debates and the form in which they are carried out, we’re missing a few from the technical group so there would have been a bit of a wider support, the motion was put in alongside Councillor Paton’s name as well, so I just think it goes to show really that there is a real divide”. (Note: Councillor Paton was not at Monday’s meeting when the most recent vote took place).
In conclusion, Cllr Wallace believes that the provision of live-streaming would see more people engaging with their local authority, noting “That’s exactly what the statistics show us is that where streaming of council meetings are already taking place thousands of people watch, now obviously it depends on the topics, some are more interested in different issues, but on average a couple of thousand people are watching, then you can see these on social media as well, if somebody wants to join the council meeting they have to take time off in the middle of their day it’s not feasible and they’re not going to do it but they still have every right to know how the decisions are being made and exactly what type of information councillors are getting”.
