‘Classroom style’ meetings meet with mixed reviews

A NEW “classroom style” layout for meetings of Meath County Council has met with mixed reviews from councillors.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 the council had adopted new formats for the holding of its monthly meeting including a combination of physical meetings at the Solstice Arts Centre and by zoom. The council had stopped using the old council chamber at Railway Street because it was found to be unsuitable.

A decision was made to move meetings to a temporary venue at council headquarters Buvinda House while the council awaits construction of a new council chamber and reception venue on that site. At the March meeting at the new venue, the Cathaoirleach Cllr Nick Killian, Chief Executive Jackie Maguire and officials sat at a long desking arrangement facing down into the room.

Councillors were allocated seats in rows of desks facing the top table. There were complaints from some councillors that the new arrangement was “too tight”. Cllr Killian said it should be remembered that the former chamber (Railway Street) was “tight as well”. He pointed to what he said were “pieces of art” on the wall and these were being used to absorb sound and prevent echoing. The chief executive said that the acoustics in the room were “not good” but they are now able to invest in it.

Cllr Killian said that a council official had put a lot of time and effort in trying to make the room suitable for the meetings. Independent Cllr Gillian Toole said that for the next meetings efforts should be made to have the various political groupings arranged “row by row”.

Fianna Fail Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons said that while a lot of efforts had gone into making the arrangements he felt he was in a classroom. "Indeed, if it was a classroom you wouldn’t be allowed to have five people in it, he said.

He was not taking from the efforts that had been put in but he felt that the room should be “opened up”. The Cathaoirleach quipped “I hope I don’t sound like a teacher” and another said to Cllr Fitzsimons “do you limit the numbers in the pub?”

The question of access to the meetings for members of the public also came up. Labour Cllr Elaine McGinty said that it was really important that the meetings should be opened up. There was so much negativity about local government and policies, and so much misinformation. The meetings were a platform to “get the truth out”, to show the work being done by councillors. They needed to be more open to the public, she said.

Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin thought that it would be easy enough to record the proceeds of the meetings on a loop and make them available afterwards to the public.

Fianna Fail Cllr Damien O’Reilly felt it was “great” to be in the room they were in “after three years of depression in the Solstice”. He didn’t understand where the Technical Group on the council were coming from. “We can have a bit of a craic, there’s a bit of a buzz around, everyone can hear each other. I don’t know what the Technical Group are worried about being beside one another because we all have phones or emails or you can look at the person if you want to communicate with them”.

As far as letting members of the pubic in, his memory told him that pre-Covid there might be only two or three members of the public attending. He complimented those who had put the arrangements in the room together “because you have a plug socket and a table in front of you”.

Independent Cllr Alan Lawes said that as they were public representatives, there should be some arrangement made for access by the public, a point also made by Social Democrat Cllr Ronan Moore. Fine Gael Cllr Noel French said that the council should do everything it could to welcome public access.