The Gazette 1982

JULY/AUGUST 1982

GAZETTE

exclude the press or (b) the local authority by resolution refers a designated item or designated items to a committee and adopts the procedure laid down in its own standing orders. The propriety of procedure (b) is — in the circumstances outlined earlier in this paper — open to question and it remains to be seen if a journalist becomes sufficiently worked up about it to take the matter before the courts or if the media generally considers the matter to be sufficiently important as to press for legislation. If the legislation fol- lowed the English pattern the last state of the journalist would be no better than the first. The last area to be examined is the right of the public to attend meetings of local authorities. We start with the proposition that the public has no general or absolute right to attend meetings of local authorities. The law as enunci- ated in Tenby Corporation v. Mason continues to apply in this jurisdiction. The Local Government (Procedure in Councils) Order 1899 indicated that estimates meetings should be open to the public but Street, in his compendious book on local government suggests that the Order (at least in this respect) is now obsolete. The 1899 Order was, in fact, revoked by the Public Bodies Order 1923. The legal position was reviewed by District Justice Delap in January 1973 in his unreported findings in A. G. V. Eugene Keogh andAifan Griffin-, thefinding is set out in the Law Society Gazette of July/August 1973 at page 163 and arises out of the conduct of two members of the Dun Laoghaire Housing Action Group at a meeting of Dun Laoghaire Borough Council. Here again the standing orders of individual local authorities need to be studied. Standing Order no. 49 of Limerick Corporation for example, reads simply: "The public, in so far as space permits, may be present at meetings of the Council in that portion of the Chamber from time to time allotted to their use." The limitation of attendance of members ofthe public by habitually offering too little space for the public would be seen by the courts as a ploy — see R. V Liverpool City Council (The Times, December 7th, 1974) — but such a ploy has not evidenced itself in this jurisdiction. Local Government officials, while concerned about the effects — especially on the elected representatives — of attendance by members of the public who are really pressure groups and can be numerous and noisy, are conscious of the benefits to democracy which spring from scrutiny of the activities of local government by the press and the public and generally maintain a co-operative rather than an obstructive stance. • Appendix Local Government Board for Ireland To the County Council of each Administrative County in Ireland; the District Council of each Urban and Rural District in Ireland', the Town Commissioners of each Town having Commissioners under the Towns Improve- ment (Ireland) Act, 1854, but which is not an Urban District; and the Guardians of the Poor of each Union in Ireland; And to all others whom it may concern. [Order dated 9th February, 1903.] Whereas it is provided by section 15 of the Local

Government (Ireland) Act, 1902(a), that no resolution of any council, board, or commissioners to exclude from its meetings representatives of the press shall be-valid unless sanctioned by the Local Government Board for Ireland in pursuance of bye-laws which the said Local Government Board are thereby empowered to frame regulating the admission of the representatives of the press to such meetings: Now, therefore, We, the Local Government Board for Ireland, in exercise of the powers vested in us by the said section and of all other powers enabling us in this behalf, do hereby order and direct that the following provisions shall take effect as bye-laws for regulating the admission of the representatives of the press to meetings of councils, boards, and commissioners: 1. Subject as is hereinafter mentioned any person who desires to attend a meeting of any council, board, or commissioners as a representative of the press, and (continued opposite)

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