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[Press Release: December 7th, 2004] De Burca condemns proposal to reduce number of council meetingsGreen party councillor, Deirdre de Burca, has condemned a recent proposal made by the Protocol Committee of Wicklow County Council that the number of monthly meetings of the full council be reduced from two to one. At present, councillors attend a Housing meeting and a General meeting of Wicklow County Council every month. These meetings are held in the County Buidlings in Wicklow and are attended by members of the media and the general public."The County Manager is obliged by law to be present at these meetings, as are the relevant senior officials of the council" says de Burca. "It provides a critical opportunity for councillors to question officials, with the media and members of the general public present. In fact, the council spent a considerable amount of money in recent years extending the council chambers so that the public gallery could hold more people". Councillor de Burca is particularly critical of the proposal to replace a full meeting of the council with Area Committee meetings. "There are five Area Committees in the county" she says. "They already meet every few months, but they are not attended by either the media or by members of the public. There is therefore no openness and transparency about the work done by these committees. The County Manager and the senior officials are not obliged to attend them and there are no facilities for members of the public to sit in on these meetings". The Green Party councillor claims that her colleagues are proposing these changes because of their annoyance with the negative media coverage that Wicklow County Council received during the summer when the new County Development Plan was being drafted. "Would the public ever have found out about the terrible rezoning decisions made by their councillors, if these decisions had been made in closed committees" asks de Burca. She has called on her fellow councillors to oppose this proposal as she claims it is "anti-democratic".
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