Call to live-stream Cork County Council meetings online

A local councillor is calling for a live webcasting service for future meetings of Cork County Council to be launched.

Independent councillor Peter O’Donoghue is looking for the council to provide a webcast facility, similar to other councils such as Dublin City Council. This, he feels, would allow the public to view full council meetings live, while also being able to view recordings of previous meetings at their own discretion.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr O’Donoghue said that “democracy and communication are very important”.

“It is especially important for people to know how the public representatives are representing them.

“The reason I brought forward the motion is because I believe that the people of Co Cork should be able to gain as much access to what is happening in Cork County Council meetings as possible.

“I believe in openness and transparency as well, and it makes sense to me that we would make it as easy as possible for the people of Cork to gain access to Cork County Council meetings.”

In terms of what he hopes will happen regarding the next steps for the motion, Mr O’Donoghue added: “I can’t see any reason why any councillor or any member of council staff would not want Cork County Council meetings to be more accessible to members of the public.

“It is the right thing to do,” he said.

“It is the best thing to do for democracy.

“For the media, the meetings go on for hours. The media can’t cover every issue and every topic that happens in the meetings.

“It is good for clarification as well, for councillors and council staff members. So that it can be clarified in the event of somebody accusing the media of misconstruing what they are saying.”