Councillors get expenses for attending remote meetings

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien signed an order giving remote meetings the same status in law as those that take place in a physical space. Picture: Moya Nolan

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien signed off on a proposal to ensure councillors would not lose expenses for non-attendance at meetings during the pandemic.

The minister was told councillors were obliged to attend 80% of meetings during a year to receive full payment of their expenses allowance.

However, Covid-19 restrictions, when some members were cocooning because of age or medical conditions, while other councillors were self-isolating, had played havoc with physical attendance.

In a briefing prepared for Mr O’Brien, the minister was warned there were significant legal concerns last summer about council votes taking place “using online platforms” and the possibility of legal challenges.

Officials said their advice – and the advice given to several local councils – was that council meetings must take place in a “physical location”.

As a result, some councils were running what were called “minimum quorum” meetings, where a small number would show up in-person by agreement with other councillors.

However, the minister subsequently signed an order giving remote meetings the same status in law as those that take place in a physical space.

Virtual attendance

The possibility of virtual attendance had an impact on payment of expenses though, with a so-called “80% rule” in place for full payment of their annual expenses allowance, worth an average of €6,100 a year.

The payment is intended to cover the costs of travel, subsistence, and miscellaneous expenses involved in attending local authority meetings.

Because the payment is designed only to offset costs incurred through attending meetings, the Revenue Commissioners had ruled it could be made without deduction of tax.

However, that meant strict rules around 80% attendance were required and representations for that to be relaxed had not been agreed to.

The internal briefing said: “No exceptions to the 80% rule have ever been allowed. This is because it is designated as an expense allowance, not an income."

Officials said it was their view that councillors should not be “financially penalised” for circumstances beyond their control, and particularly when acting “in line with the public health advice for the common good”.

A spokesman for Mr O’Brien said the priority had been to ensure that local authorities could continue to exercise all their functions while minimising the public health risk.

He said it was a matter for councils to decide whether to hold fully remote meetings or to continue with in-person meetings in large venues in a “hybrid physical/remote format”.

“This has prompted some discussion with certain local authorities regarding the payment of expenses where councils are meeting remotely,” he said.

“This is however, separate to [this] discussion that had taken place earlier in the summer in relation to attendance at physical meetings.”