by Chris Ashmore

DONEGAL County Council is spending €25,500 a year – and that does not include its own staff costs – on the provision of online live streaming of its full plenary meetings.

In a written reply to Cllr Fionan Bradley, a senior council official confirmed that during the 12 month period up to June 30, 2025, there was a total of 23 meetings that were streamed on the internet as a live broadcast.

The total combined length of all the meetings was around 73 hours.

Cllr. Bradley was informed that this required “software licencing, hardware support replacement and live meeting support which is provided externally at an annual cost of €22,500.”

In addition to this, in-house technical support is required with two staff members assigned on the days of meetings.

Meetings such as the most recent one, for July, can be accessed on the council website.

The webcasts are available to view for six months after each meeting.

The Council’s webcast library currently also has 16 webcasts from the MacGill Summer School in Glenties which was held last week.

Following Covid, a number of online meetings were streamed live by the Council. Currently, it is common for a sizable number of councillors to contribute to monthly meetings online rather than being there in person.