Sir, - How could your reporter Ms Carol Coulter produce such selective reports from the Convention on Quality in Local Government (June 7th and 8th) and how could you give such biased editorial treatment to an event with such a wide range of contributors?
Selective because the reports quoted only criticism of local authorities and gave no mention of the contributions by other speakers which rebutted in whole or in part such criticism.
Biased because the articles seemed to revel in the negative comments made against local authorities. The positive comments - including those made by people from outside the local authority spectrum - get no hearing in the reporting.
In your first report a representative from the Consumers Association is quoted at length with her claims alleging lack of access to information held by local authorities.
There is no mention of the contributions from the very next speaker, Cllr Fintan Coogan, Cathaoirleach of this organisation, who in his prepared script (copies of which were freely available at the conference) demonstrated that there was no element of government more open to public scrutiny than the local government system. Indeed, Cllr Coogan referred to a series of articles on freedom of information in the public service in a national paper some years ago in which one of the contributors pointed out that local authorities must be the only agencies in the entire public service where a member of the public can walk into an office and demand to see a file on a particular issue. He was referring to the public right to consult planning files.
The article in question was written by your own Environment Correspondent Mr Frank McDonald (as ardent a critic of local government as they come) in a series published some years ago by your paper.
On the following day, your reporter quotes Mr Kevin Murphy, Ombudsman, again at length, on his complaints of difficulties with local authorities.
Why was no space given to Mr. J. J. Stewart, former Co Sligo Manager, a speaker on the same morning, who described innovative projects devised by the council of that county to revitalise small villages in Sligo?
Equally, why no coverage of the contribution by Mr P. J. Howell, Senior Engineer with Fingal County Council of the quality standards put in place by that council and the good press which it had achieved in the local media as a result?
DM your correspondent not take time to listen to the papers read by Mr Noel Dillon, Co Manager Cork or Mr Donal Connolly, County Manager Waterford in which they enthusiastically shared their experience of local authority structures which are working in partnership with community groups to achieve real improvements in the physical and economic environments?
And if these people are considered by your paper to be within the local authority circuit and their opinions therefore lacking in impact what about the following comments made by people who have no reason to be particularly disposed to local authorities?
Ms Pat Oliver, An Taisce: "I would rate highly my own personal experience of the accessibility of officers and find that they are uniformly helpful. . .
Mr Kevin C. Kelly, MD, John Sisk & Son Ltd ". . . I have consulted with colleagues through the country and have found that there is a large body of opinion well satisfied with the service provided by local authorities."
The above quotes are available in their written papers, which again were available at the conference. People involved in local government, be they officials or elected councillors, are well used to criticism but when such criticism is exaggerated by selective reporting and biased editorial treatment the validity of such criticism needs to be questioned. Perhaps saying anything remotely balanced much less complimentary about government, national or local, is not considered incisive journalism. - Yours, etc.,
Director General, General Council of County
Councils,
Greenmount House,
Greenmount Office Park,
Harold's Cross Road,
Dublin 6W.
Carol Coulter writes: The space provided for coverage of this convention was, unfortunately, severely limited, to less space than the average letter to the Letters page of The Irish Times. Therefore, for reasons beyond my control, it was not possible to give it comprehensive coverage. In such a situation it was only possible to highlight one or two of the more accessible contributions, which inevitably cannot provide a total view of the proceedings of a two day conference.