Which Councillors never missed a meeting in 2025? Dublin City Council attendance records revealed
Last year saw Dublin City Councillors busy representing their constituents at all the various meetings Dublin City Council hosts - although some were certainly more present than others.
Whether at full Council monthly meetings, local area committees, or SPCs, all attendance figures are publicly tracked, meaning anyone can keep up with how often their local Councillors turn up. There’s 63 democratically elected public representatives, and figures show that the vast majority of Councillors managed to attend more than three quarters of their expected meetings in 2025.
Plenty of councillors actually had a perfect attendance record as 18 of them did not miss a single meeting. These include: Alison Field, Ammar Ali, Christy Burke, Conor Reddy, Daniel Ennis, Dermot Lacey, Donna Cooney, Feljin Jose, Fiona Connolly, Hazel Chu, Janet Horner, Keith Connolly, Kourtney Kenny, Lesley Byrne, Mary Callaghan, Paddy Monaghan, Seamus McGrattan and Supriya Singh.
However, some councillors have more responsibilities than others when it comes to meetings they’re expected to attend. Labour Cllr Dermot Lacey had more meetings than anyone else and he proved his time management skills by being present at all 50 of his expected appointments last year.
As the chairperson of the South East Area Committee, Cllr Lacey is also a member of the Finance SPC, Planning and Urban Regeneration SPC, Protocol Committee, and the HSE Dublin and South East Health Region. He’s also an appointee on several outside bodies like City of Dublin Education and Training Board, The Royal Hospital Donnybrook, and the Association of Irish Local Government.
The second most active representative with a perfect attendance record also came from the Labour Party as Cllr Fiona Connolly too boasts zero absences from her 45 expected meetings. The third best attendee was Cllr Feljin Jose from the Green Party, who attended all of his 43 expected meetings.
The councillor with the lowest attendance record proportionally is Fine Gael Cllr Punam Rane who was absent for 12 out 46 meetings. These absences came following her suspension from Fine Gael after comments she made at a Dublin City Council meeting in October 2024. This resulted in the Kimmage-Rathmines councillor being suspended from all rights and privileges of party membership for a period of 18 months from April 2025.
The lowest attendance record from an active Councillor was Sinn Fein Cllr Anthony Connaghan. Cllr Connaghan was present 75% of the time and missed nine out of the 36 meetings. However, these absences can be attributed to personal family matters.
The next lowest attendance figures come from Fine Gael Cllr Emma Blain who was present as expected 78% of the time. She missed nine out of 40 meetings.
Being a Councillor gives representatives a direct impact on how Dublin is run, as they make and amend local bye-laws, adopt the annual budget, and oversee the City Development Plan. While councillors receive an annual salary and a monthly allowance for their attendance at various meetings - including Monthly, Annual, SPC, and Budget meetings - this is often not their only job.
Many councillors also work day jobs and have family commitments that they must balance alongside their civic responsibility to represent the best interests of their constituents. This makes those with perfect attendance records all the more admirable.
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme