Agenda item

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, on 20th October 2020 signed an order which will allow County and City Councillors to hold meetings and vote remotely. Although the Statutory Instrument supersedes standing orders and meetings can proceed remotely without the need to amend them it is important for standing orders to be updated to reflect the change in the regulations. As a result the following changes to standing orders have been proposed. Green denotes additional text and red denotes the removal of text.

8.         Summoning of Meetings

I.          The ‘place’ at which the meeting is held may be at:

•           the Council Chamber

•           one or more Council buildings or rooms

•           an external venue used to accommodate meetings of the council

•           the location of the organiser of the meeting

•           an electronic, digital or virtual location, web address or a conference call telephone number 

The “place” of the meeting could also be a number of these combined, with at least some of the elected members and the public and/or media (as provided for under the provisions of Section 45(3) of the Local Government Act 2001) attending remotely.

13.       Quorum

The Quorum for the City Council is 17. Members attending physically and remotely will together constitute a quorum (See sections 41 and 43 for SPC and Area Committees.)

56.          Remote Meetings

      I.        Committees of the Council may host remote meetings through video conferencing and also hybrid meetings though a combination of physical and remote attendance.  provided they do not make legally binding or statutory decisions. Committees should adhere to the “Remote Meetings Guidelines” as approved by the Protocol Committee on 7th May 2020 as amended, when conducting such meetings.

    II.        The agenda and minutes of remote meetings should be produced and published to the same extent as physical meetings.

   III.        Meetings held remotely should be recorded and published subsequent to the meeting.

  IV.        Any member participating in a meeting remotely must, when they are speaking, be able to be heard (and seen, where practicable) by all other Members in attendance, and the remote participant must, in turn, be able to hear (and see, where practicable) those other Members participating.

    V.        The Cathaoirleach will at the outset and at any reconvening of a meeting conduct a roll call of participating members and ensure that they can see and/or hear those in attendance.  Any member participating remotely should also inform the meetings administrator if they lose connection.

  VI.        Every reference to quorum contained within the standing orders shall be construed as permitting councillors participating remotely to count towards a quorum when Committees of the Council are hosting remote meetings.

The normal quorum requirements for meetings as set out in the Council’s Standing Orders will also apply to a remote meeting.  Members attending physically and remotely will together constitute a quorum.

 VII.        In the event of any apparent failure of the video, telephone or conferencing connection to one or more members, theCathaoirleach should immediately determine if the meeting is still quorate.  If there is no quorum, then the meeting shall adjourn for a short period specified by the Cathaoirleach, to allow the connection to be re-established. 

VIII.        Should a Member’s remote connection fail, the obligation is on the Elected Member to inform the meeting of this fact.   If the connection is successfully re-established, then the remote member(s) will be deemed to have returned at the point of re-establishment

  IX.        If the connection cannot be restored or an alternative method of communication established within the time specified by the Cathaoirleach, the meeting should continue, provided the meeting remains quorate.

    X.        If a connection to a member is lost during a statutory vote, every effort will be made to re-establish a connection. If, a connection cannot be restored within a reasonable timeframe the onus is on the member to indicate to the meeting his/her voting intention by the agreed alternate method.

Order: Agreed and recommended to Council.