Ban on public and media attending Kilkenny council policy meetings overturned

By COLIN BARTLEY

THE DECISION of county councillors to ban the media and the public from Kilkenny County Council’s policy meetings has been reversed.

The U-turn was led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the parties who originally pushed for the ban.

The ban was put in place following a vote at June’s monthly council meeting. Councillors voted 19 to 5 in favor of the exclusion from Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) meetings.

Just one Fine Gael member, Cllr David Fitzgearld joined Cllr Eugene McGuinness (Ind), Cllr Malcom Noonan (GP), Denis Hynes(Lab), and Tomás Breathneach (Lab) in voting against the ban.

The motion passed at the July meeting of the council amended last month’s vote, and now members of the public and the press can attend meetings once more.