Members of the public will not be able to access Galway City Council meetings via online for the time being, a spokesperson for the local authority has confirmed.
It had been hoped that the vote at Leisureland on Monday afternoon to stream the meetings online for councillors, council staff, and members of the media would include a provision to include the public, but, a spokesperson for the council said in order to secure meetings online, it was decided to limit to the aforementioned groups.
The spokesperson said; "All meetings are subject to standing orders governing behaviour at City Hall and Leisureland such as video and audio recording and taking pictures. However, online [governing behaviour] would be more difficult to manage. These measures will be reviewed in January.
.
"Members of the public, however, can still attend meetings in public subject to standing orders on numbers [of people at the meeting]."
In response to the vote Independent councillor Colette Connolly conveyed her frustration over the exclusion of the public from online meetings.
"We should not be excluding the public," she said. "Covid is with us to stay and possibly longer. Whatever fears they have with the facility, the technology is there and should be dealing with this issues. We shouldn't be excluding [the public] in the long term."
