Fingal County Council tells media they’re banned from strategic policy committee meetings

On Monday, Fingal County councillors held their first housing committee meeting of the year.

On the agenda were updates on how the council’s tenant-in-situ and affordable housing schemes are faring. And, a motion calling on the council to engage more with the tenants’ union CATU.

But the debate among elected representatives, committee members, and public servants isn’t public.

Because at the end of last year, Fingal councillors voted through new rules for council business under which, a council spokesperson has said, media are no longer allowed to attend this and other meetings.

Before last December, media had been allowed in strategic policy committee (SPC) meetings – at which councillors and officials discuss policy and proposals in areas as key as housing and transport, and climate.

Last week, a spokesperson for Fingal County Council, in response to a request for media access to Monday’s housing committee, said: “In line with the standing orders it is not possible for media to attend next week’s Housing SPC.”

While councillors voted through the changes, many said earlier this week that it was their understanding that media can generally get access to strategic policy committee meetings.

Green Party Councillor David Healy, who chairs the Climate Action, Biodiversity, Environment Strategic Policy Committee, said he hadn’t been aware of a request to attend – which had been batted back through the press office.

Despite the new standing orders, he granted Dublin Inquirer access to the meeting on Tuesday, after other committee members agreed.

Séamus Dooley, the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ’s) Irish Secretary, said that “restricting media access, either to full council meetings or SPCs, conflicts with the policy of open government”.

There are rare occasions where a committee needs to discuss matters of procedure in private, Dooley said.

But SPCs were introduced to widen participation in the decision-making process at councils, he said. “The NUJ has always campaigned for open government. Abuse of ‘in committee’ rules by county councils have been opposed over many years.”

Updating the rules

At their monthly meeting on 11 December, Fingal County councillors waved through new standing orders with no debate, then and there.

They had already been through a fairly lengthy process of discussions over six months, said Fianna Fáil Mayor Adrian Henchy, as the item came up for vote.

“So if we can have a proposer and seconder for this,” he said. Which was done, and the rules passed.

The new standing orders say in a section on media access that accredited media “will be” facilitated at the annual meeting, budget meeting, monthly meetings and any special meetings that are held.

They say that accredited media “may be” present at the area committee meetings. There are three of those, the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee, the Howth/Malahide Area Committee, and the Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart/Castleknock/Ongar Area Committee.

But the section doesn’t mention strategic policy committees and access at all.

Elsewhere in the standing orders, it says, “Subject to the provisions of Standing Order No.14, meetings of any standing or special Committee shall not, without the authority of the Committee, be open to the public or media.”

Standing order 14 is just a list of all the committees.

Two days after standing orders were passed, a spokesperson for the press office refused Dublin Inquirer access to the Community Development, Heritage Culture and Creativity Strategic Policy Committee.

“In line with the standing orders, today’s SPC is a restricted access meeting meaning it is not possible for media to attend,” they said.

The chair of that committee, Social Democrats Councillor Joan Hopkins, says she hadn’t been told about any request to attend.

On Tuesday, the spokesperson refused access to this week’s Climate Action, Biodiversity, Environment Strategic Policy Committee.

“As previously advised in line with the standing orders it is not possible for media to attend any SPCs,” they said.

More opaque

Other Dublin councils have set rules favouring much greater transparency.

At South Dublin County Council, press and visitors have access to SPCs on a first-come-first-served basis unless there’s a special reason not to, say standing orders on its website.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s standing orders note that press are allowed in meetings, unless at least half of councillors vote that part of all of the discussion needs to be closed for some special reason – and the reasons for that are recorded.

Dublin City Council’s standing orders say similar to Dún Laoghaire’s, noting also that media may be present at committees but if there are confidential matters, they may be excluded in line with the Local Government Act.

Before mid-December, media were allowed at strategic policy committees held by Fingal County Council, unless the council voted against it by resolution, say the old standing orders agreed in June 2020.

The press office did, though, demand that media email in advance of each meeting to get permission each time for access.

When Dublin Inquirer began to cover Fingal County Council meetings last autumn, councillors at strategic policy committees commented on how it was unusual to have a journalist watching.

“I think this is the first time we’ve had guests since I’ve been chairing,” said Hopkins, the Social Democrats councillor, on 27 September, at a meeting of the Community Development, Heritage Culture and Creativity Strategic Policy Committee.

“It’s kind of unusual for an SPC,” said Fianna Fáil Councillor Eoghan O’Brien as he deputised as chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Management Strategic Policy Committee on 4 September.

On Monday, O’Brien said it was the first time he had encountered the issue of media seeking access to an SPC. “The custom and practice had been, for a long time, that the SPCs were held in camera.”

Why closed up?

It is within councillors’ powers to set the rules for council meetings in standing orders, and they voted through the new set, which is now being cited to ban media.

However, several councillors in the past week said that their understanding was that strategic policy committee meetings are still open to media.

The public should be able to attend every SPC, says Social Democrats Councillor Paul Mulville. “And they can, if they email to get permission.”

They should be easier to access, he says. “They need to be more open and transparent and engage with people more.”

Many are run on Microsoft Teams conference calls, which can only be entered through a privately shared link.

The first step to opening them up might be to livestream the meetings via the council’s website instead, he says.

Access is generally provided to Fingal County Council’s meetings subject to permission, said Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary, chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Management Strategic Policy Committee.

“An odd time, we’d have something rare where we’d discuss something very sensitive,” he said, and then they’d be excluded. Like, a proposed land rezoning, he said.

O’Brien, the Fianna Fáil councillor, said he saw press access to SPCs as positive.

But, he said, he believes the rewording of the new standing orders was drafted by Fingal’s Corporate Affairs department, and approved by council members, with the goal of giving the SPC more discretion.

The concern among councillors might be that an idea to be discussed that isn’t fully fleshed out, could be misconstrued as definitive, he says.

“If it’s something that could be a policy in the early stage of development, so it’s not being presented as something that’s a fait accompli, it would be at the discretion of the committee whether access is granted.”

O’Leary, the Fine Gael councillor, says the committee sometimes needs to be able to speak frankly. “We all have to be able to say what we think without looking over our shoulders with the cameras on us.”

Once a discussion has moved to the area committee, then generally it can be made a public matter, he says. “Everyone can see what is going on, and then it moves onto the council, where it’s public again.”

“But we need to be able to talk in camera, like a Dáil committee, with their private sessions, because they need to sort out the agenda,” he said.

Issues that come up for discussion at SPCs don’t always move to an area committee, and can – like the new standing orders – be voted on without discussion at monthly meetings, as debate has already happened behind closed doors.

On the agendas of recent Fingal strategic policy Committee meetings were plans for libraries, the council’s noise action plan, updates on monitoring coastal erosion, and updates on the Residential Zoned Land Tax.

A spokesperson for Fingal County Council pointed to the new standing orders, in response to queries as to why access wasn’t being granted to SPC meetings.

Refusing access to this week’s housing committee meeting, the Fingal County Council spokesperson said they would ask when minutes would be available.The sparse two-page minutes of the last housing committee meeting include no details of the discussion about each agenda item. “Following discussion, the presentation was NOTED,” it simply says. Or, “The report was ACCEPTED.”