PSST! Y'know the way I'm like, inclined to rant a bit the odd time like, yeah? Well, say nothing okay, but it's way past time I had another rant.

This week it's about Drogheda Borough Council meetings. Some of the more eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that I have not been reporting on DBC meetings recently. This is because I have determined that Drogheda Borough Council meetings are a complete waste of time. Not for me as a columnist, you understand, I mean for the whole town, well borough actually.

If these meetings were on Youtube or webcammed to the outside world and the public could see what goes on at them, I absolutely guarantee that people would vote differently next time out.

As far as I can see the non-elected officials are the ones with all the power. It's one of the immutable laws of creation. There's nothing anyone can do about it. Of course some would say that this is not local government really, it's just local administration. I would be inclined to agree.

The DBC meeting code of behaviour that has evolved over the years is a complete farce. For instance every single councillor has to have their say on every single subject during the evening. This seems to me to be a party appeasement exercise and nothing else.

As the discussion develops the mayor simply watches the hands being raised and lets the boys (and girl) talk to their hearts' content, with no time limit, in a chronological, repetitive and mostly preposterous fashion.

Essentially this is just a talking shop.

Furthermore, being of a reasonably perceptive persuasion myself, I would respectfully suggest that most of the councillors are speaking for the benefit of the press box most of the time and not their constituents.

Every talking slot is filled with as much as the individual councillor can cram into before running out of steam, even if it's already been said. And most of the time it has been.

It gets a lot worse when there is a vested interest group in the public gallery. Here the councillors say all the right things for the benefit of the interested party – each one having their (unlimited) turn. It is obvious by the timbre of the voice and the demeanour of the speaker that the words are carefully crafted and are meant to impress the gallery audience specifically.

Voting for a particular issue can also be a joke. The motion is usually loaded with double negatives and/or positives that it's virtually impossible for councillors to work out whether or not they should be for or against. Oftentimes councillors say 'for' when they really mean 'against' and vice versa. I have often witnessed them being tied up in knots over a simple motion that ends up being inexorably convoluted.

As far as I can see Notices of Motion (issues that are put on the agenda by councillors) are rarely acted upon by the officials. Councillors' views are duly noted but to me that's often as far as it goes.

The elected officials in turn, of course, pay the same lip service to those who elected them.

Since I have been observing these activities I have come to the conclusion that the local elections are not elections at all but popularity contests. The current council is primarily a collection of individuals who have reached the pinnacle of their political careers and haven't the capacity to think beyond potholes and speed ramps, with the exception of one or two who are striving for greater things.

A classic example of the futility of these proceedings is epitomised by the skate park debacle. Many hours were spent discussing the location of a skate park for the kids of this town by the councillors but in the end they couldn't agree on where to site the facility and the money (€ 150,000) was lost, on two occasions I believe. It's now gone forever.

And the amount of times that the parking situation on the Chord Road has come up over the years is mind boggling. They've been talking about that subject since Parnell spoke from the gallery of Mayoralty House - and still nothing's been done.

Don't believe me. Go to one sometime and see for yourself.

- with Tom Reilly