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The thorny issue of the amount of business the Council does ‘in committee’ - behind closed doors - was raised last week at the very committee which makes most of its decisions away from public view.
In June 2022, it was reported in the local press that 62% of items put before Newry, Mourne and Down District Council’s Strategy, Policy, and Resources (SP&R) Committee for decision (excluding the opening formality items) were ‘in committee’ - almost double the 35% for the same period in 2017.
As a follow-up, Newry.ie looked at the meetings from August 2022 to March 2023 and found that an incredible 65% of committee business was heard behind closed doors.
Raising the Issue
At last week’s SP&R committee meeting, Slieve Gullion SDLP councillor Pete Byrne put the matter of this lack of transparency to Council Corporate Services Director, Josephine Kelly.
“We [SDLP] raised previously in SP&R the number of items that are ‘in committee’ and if you take out the ‘For Noting’ items [on the agenda], well over 50%, 60% of the items [at this meeting] are going to be in committee,” said Cllr Byrne.
“We put forward a proposal at the last SP&R meeting in terms of communication and reporting and I think we need to note this in the Term of Reference; that if it’s got financial nature or any information that has to go ‘in committee’ that that can be kept separate, because there are an awful lot of reports on there and there’s no reason why they should be in committee.
“You’re talking about the DfC response. I can’t understand why it’s in committee; the public realm is hugely positive in Newry, I understand there are costs, but those costs can be separate because none of that is reportable outside this [meeting].
“I know Josephine, you said you said you’d look at it for the new term so I put that request forward again, that we look at the sheer amount of items we put in committee and see if we can fix that going forward.
“If we could find a mechanism of keeping the financials aside and having the body of the paper in public open session, that would be really welcome for the transparency of this council.”
Responding, Corporate Services Director, Mrs Kelly, said the issue had been talked about within Corporate Services.
“We noted your comments, and we are going to look at each one of the reports that come through and see what we can do as far as - we will be guided by legislation but if there is anything we can move to open we will do so,” she said.
Coming back again, Cllr Byrne asked for a management response on whether financial information could be removed from paper with main reports put into open public session.
“Just a simple yes or no and the reasons why,” said the SDLP councillor.
“Because we get hammered by the public for the amount of discussions that happen behind closed doors and where we can put something into open session we should, so a response from management on that would be welcome.”
However, Mrs Kelly just didn’t sound as enthusiastic for the idea as the Slieve Gullion councillor.
“We’d have to look at logistics because it [an agenda item] could be on twice then - you might have the paper in open session and again in closed session,” she said.
“It’s maybe just not as easy as having a paper without a figure in it and the appendix out. But we are looking at each paper as they come forward to see what we can do is far as open or closed session.”
But councillor Byrne wasn’t having the negativity.
“I still tabled to have that response formally because I don't think it's too hard to remove financials - I’m not saying have two papers, financials of all the papers separate,” he said.
“We need to have things like this in open session. I don't understand how…we're talking about a public realm and drawings of it that is in closed session. That is something the public should be able to see.
“Hopefully if senior management come back with a reason why they can’t do that, then we can move forward.”
