Communications

Cathaoirleach's Award Scheme

This scheme was devised to acknowledge and reward people who have given special service to their community. The third series of awards were hosted in County Hall, and the category winners were:

Arts

Coolera Dramatic Society

Community

Jim Eccles

Environment

Rathcormac Residents Association

National Schools

Ballintogher National School

Sports

Theresa Kiernan

The winner of the overall 2003 Cathaoirleach’s Awards was Jim Eccles.

Staff Newsletter

Four issues of staff newsletter were produced by the Communications Office in conjunction with the Partnership Facilitator and the staff of Sligo Borough Council. As well as being circulated to elected members and retired staff, an edition of the newsletter is posted on the website for the general public. In 2004 it is intended to publish a monthly update to the newsletter - e-Contact will be issued to staff and Elected members by e-mail, and a printed version will be made available for staff and retired staff without access to computers.

Website

The Communications Office worked with staff in IT section to maintain and develop Sligo County Council’s website. The site is regularly updated with news and information, and features a weekly roads and traffic report, diary of events, minutes of Council meetings and weekly planning lists.

Open Local Government Initiative

During 2003 the Council hosted visits from schools throughout the county as part of our ’Open Local Government Initiative.’ The students were given a presentation on the work carried out by the Council, participated in a Question and Answer session, and attended a meeting of the Council.

Among the schools taking part in the programme were St Attracta’s National School Tubbercurry and the Business Studies and European Studies classes in Sligo Institute of Technology.

Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information legislation was introduced in 1997 to provide the following rights..

• The right of access to official records held by public bodies
• The right to have personal information corrected or updated if is incomplete, incorrect or misleading.
• The right to be given reasons for decisions taken by public bodies that affect them.

Initial Request for Information              €15
Internal review of decision                     €75
Review by Information Commissioner   €150

The Freedom of Information (Amendment Act) 2003 introduced new charges for processing FOI requests - Of the 39 FOI requests processed in 2003, 28 were granted and 11 were refused.