Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has welcomed the recent decision of Wicklow County Councillors to allow for the web-casting of future council meetings. “This will mean that members of the public will be able to access recordings of council meetings on the Wicklow County Council’s website” says de Burca.

“I put a motion down two years ago calling on Wicklow County Council to allow for the audio and video-recording of council meetings” she says. “Unfortunately the motion has remained on the agenda for the past two years and we never reached it. However, I now welcome the move to have recordings of the council meetings available on its website”.

De Burca says that councillors present at the meeting unanimously agreed to allow for the web-casting of future meetings. “However, we did discuss the fact that if the council broadcast these meetings on its website, as the broadcaster, it could be held legally responsible for any defamatory comments that were made during meetings” says de Burca. “We have received advice from the council’s Law Agent as to safeguards we can put in place to limit the liability of the council”.

The Green Party councillor says that she believes that the availability of recordings of the council meetings on its website is an important development in terms of openness and transparency in terms of how the council does its business. “Members of the public will now be able to log on to the council website and see what their elected representatives are doing on their behalf” says de Burca. “They will be able to know how their local councillors voted on particular issues and I believe this will be very good for local democracy”.