The Business of the Elected Councils

Council Meetings

The ultimate decision making authority of the Local Government is the Council. For the county areas it is the County council while in a town or Borough it is the Town / Borough Council.

Full meetings of both Town and County Councils are usually held monthly and are generally open to the public.

Each Council has 4 types of meetings:

- An annual meeting (held in May / June)

- Ordinary meetings (usually held at least monthly)

- A budget/estimates meeting (usually held towards the end of the year)

- Special meetings

At the annual meetings the members elect a Cathaoirleach (chairperson) or in the case of Kilkenny Borough Council a Mayor. These positions are generally selected on the basis of democratic majorities and so the parties on the Councils depend on getting enough votes to get their candidates elected.

Minutes of the meetings are generally available to the public through your local authority website.

Committee Meetings

Local Area meetings

Often more in-depth discussion of issues of relevance to local councillors takes place at Committee level rather than at full meetings of the Council.

Therefore there are Local area meetings which correspond to the Electoral area and are usually held on a monthly basis. At these meetings elected members have the opportunity to discuss issues of relevance to their particular area.

In Kilkenny the local electoral areas are:

- Ballyragget

- Kilkenny city

- Piltown

- Thomastown

- Callan

In Carlow the local areas are:

- Borris

- Muine Bheag

- Tullow

- Carlow East

- Carlow West

Policy Committees

A structured committee system for the development of areas of policy was introduced for councils replacing the previous ad hoc system of committees.

Under this system the Councils established a number of policy focussed committees known as Strategic Policy Committees (SPC’s).

Each Councillor serves on at least one SPC and the Chairperson of the SPC must be an elected member of the Council and are appointed for a period of 3 years.

The SPC’s cover areas such as:

- Housing & Social

- Environment

- Planning and Economic Development

- Transport

- Tourism & Heritage

In addition to elected members of the Council, SPC’s are made up of representatives of “sectoral interests” comprising community, business, trade union, farming, development and environmental interests.

Corporate Policy Groups (CPG’s)

The Chairpersons of each SPC as well as the Cathaoirleach of the Council make up the Corporate Policy Group. The Manager also participates in and supports the work of the CPG.

The role of the CPG is intended to link and co-ordinate the work of the different SPC’s and to provide a forum where policy positions affecting the whole Council can be discussed and agreed for submission to the full Council. It is intended to give focus to the policy role of Councils.

Representation on Other Bodies

Members of Local authorities often serve as representatives on a range of other boards and organisations. These include:

- Joint committees with other local Authorities

- VEC’s

- Regional Authorities

- Regional Tourism Organisations

- Harbour or Port authorities

- Enterprise Boards Leader Groups

- Area partnership boards

- The General Council of County Councils

- The Local Authority Members Association

Payments to Councillors for their role

While the ethos of voluntary public service is a long standing and publicly accepted part of local elected office, a financial support framework has been introduced in recent years to recognise the time commitment involved in being a local public representative.

These payments involve:

- Representational payment – a salary payment made to Councillors. Currently 1/3 of the amount paid to members of Seanad Eireann

- Fixed annual allowance which is designed to cover meeting and other expenses. Full amount payable on attendance at 80% of meetings, thereafter on a pro rata basis

- Allowances for Chairpersons of Councils

- Allowances for chairpersons of SPC’s

- Education grants In addition, certain other bodies to which members are appointed by their local Authority may also make allowance payments.

Retirement gratuities are also paid to Councillors when they retire or lose their seats at an election.