{"id":301,"date":"2009-05-12T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T15:30:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Accountability_and_Democracy_revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Accountability and Democracy revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2006, I brought forward a motion<\/a> to have terms of reference for consultants brought to the Councillors before they were issued.  As frequently happens when Councillors seek to take a role in decision-making, the Manager went to Senior Counsel to get legal advice<\/a> that this motion was illegal, legal advice which I think is completely ill-founded.  The matter was brought up at the Corporate Policy Group which in December 2006 decided as follows:<\/p>\n

"It was AGREED to identify upcoming Contract and Briefs to Consultants and list them on Area Meeting Agenda."<\/p>\n

So this month, I asked how many had been referred to the Area Cttees. The answer: None. >>>
FINGAL COUNTY COUNCIL MEETING <\/p>\n

11th May 2009 <\/p>\n

ITEM No.5 
 
Question: Councillor D. Healy <\/p>\n

“To
\nask the Manager on how many instances have draft terms of reference for
\nconsultants been brought before an Area Committee or a Strategic Policy
\nCommittee of this Council since this matter was raised in October
\n2006?” <\/p>\n

Reply: <\/p>\n

There have been no instances of
\ndraft terms of reference for consultants been brought before an Area
\nCommittee or a Strategic Policy Committee of Fingal County Council
\nsince October 2006.  However, it should be noted when Counsels advice
\nwas sought in relation to the Strategic Environment Assessment on the
\nGreater Dublin Strategic Drainage Study Strategy, it was sent in the
\nname of the Mayor on behalf of the Councillors. <\/p>\n

This arises from discussions around the appointment of consultants in general,
\na function that is solely exercised by the Manager.  The Manager is
\nobliged to adhere to such guidelines as are issued by the Department of
\nFinance on procurement of consultants services. <\/p>\n

Terms of
\nreference or briefs for appointment will follow the standards laid down
\nfor the provision of such services which to the greater extent are
\nhighly technical performance standards and ethical insofar as conflict
\nof interest etc will apply.
<<<<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2006, I brought forward a motion to have terms of reference for consultants brought to the Councillors before they were issued.  As frequently happens when Councillors seek to take a role in decision-making, the Manager went to Senior Counsel to get legal advice that this motion was illegal, legal advice which I think is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidhealy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}