Safety at council meetings is a priority during the pandemic

BRAY Municipal District manager Lorraine Gallagher said that safety is a priority during this pandemic, which she said ‘ hasn’t gone away’.

Speaking at last Tuesday’s meeting of Bray Municipal District, Ms Gallagher said that she wished to reiterate the importance of safety for public and staff.

She said that standard operating guidelines are being prepared for meetings. ‘I want to recap that we continue to observe distances of two metres and use hand sanitisers,’ she said. Tables in the chamber of the Town Hall were spaced out with two metres between them.

A sound system was also installed in the room, including speakers and microphones, and a video streaming to an adjacent room for the public.

While keeping the meeting to under two hours is not a requirement, Ms Gallagher asked that it be observed. Ms Gallagher said that if the meeting exceeded two hours and any one person tested positive for Covid-19, ‘it would put us all out for a number of weeks’.

She said that face coverings are not mandatory in that setting, but asked people to consider wearing them if moving around.

Cllr Dermot O’Brien asked if any progress has been made on having meetings online.

‘We’re still obliged to be in a physical space for statutory matters,’ she said.

‘ The Department is looking at changing the law, whereby we could meet on Zoom.’

Members and officials have previously had meetings on Zoom for the purposes of information only, without any matters requiring a vote.

‘ The difficulty is that when taking a vote things can go wrong,’ said Ms Gallagher. ‘We don’t want to see any elected member disenfranchised, unable to vote because their connection is down.’