Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in today. I was one of the Senators who requested this debate. It is remarkable the amount of work our local authority members have had to endure and do over the last number of years. Since June 2019 to today we have had Covid to deal with and we have also had the Ukrainian crisis. Each and every one of those members, and their communities, has stepped up to support the Government in the measures it introduced, whether in the Covid crisis or the Ukrainian crisis.

With that in mind, I have other things to raise today. For me, these are the most important people when it comes to delivering local government. I was talking to the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA yesterday, which represent county councillors throughout this country. They have a number of issues about which they would like me to talk to the Minister of State. There have been changes to local government within the term of this Government and those changes have not been in favour of local democracy. They have not been in favour of the local councillor. We want to build strong local government systems to promote the welfare and good government of the people of Ireland and we should protect and support democratic local government and promote democratic leadership of our elected councillors. We do not seem to have done that over the past number of years. Let me explain why.

In the past 12 to 18 months alone, direct actions by the Government around local government and local democracy have directly attacked the powers of local councillors. These attacks include the removal of section 183 of the Local Government Act, which is reserve function for disposal of council-owned land, and giving that power to the Land Development Agency. There is also the removal of Part 8, the planning reserve function, until December 2024 for council-owned housing developments. The Minister of State knows that will not be reviewed and nothing will appen on that. Councillors have been removed from the governing authorities of universities under the Higher Education Authority Act 2022. There is a current proposal by the Department of Justice to replace existing joint policing committees, which are chaired by local councillors, with community policing forums with an independent chair. There is a lack of recognition of the role of the councillor by outside Government Departments and public agencies. In the recently published town centres first policy initiative, driven by the Department of Rural and Community Development and concerning the regeneration of rural towns and villages, there is not one mention of the word "councillor" throughout the whole policy document. This is a further example of the lack of recognition for the important role of the local councillor and a further dilution of the members' powers.

In April and May of this year the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, as part of the Council of Europe, carried out a monitoring visit to Ireland on our local government system. Its draft report is highly critical and is a damning indictment of our current local government systems. It states that although Ireland is very strong in democracy, it remains one of the most centralised countries in Europe and there is still a lot to be done before local self-government in Ireland is on par with other European countries. The rapporteurs have expressed concern over the limited share of public affairs under local authorities' responsibility and local authorities' limited resources, functions and finance.

They pointed to the imbalance between the elected members and the chief executive of local authorities without a directly elected mayor. Reference was made to the lack of formalised and regular consultation as well as extensive and detailed administrative supervision. Members of the regional authorities are indirectly elected and are not accountable to citizens for decisions they take. All of these issues show there has been a dilution of the powers of local government.

Another area of concern is the gratuity scheme. Councillors do not receive a pension upon retirement as elected members. They receive a lump-sum gratuity payment but this is contrary to the normal terms and conditions that apply to public sector employees and other officeholders such as Oireachtas Members. The gratuity payment is capped at a maximum of 20 years' service, regardless of whether councillors have served for longer than that. There are many councillors with up to 40 years of service. The gratuity is payable upon councillors' retirement, whether that arises voluntarily, following failure to be elected or because of ill health or death. Under the terms of the retirement gratuity scheme, the payment is calculated on the basis of salary before July 2021. This needs to be brought up to the current date. It is imperative that we do this. If we want to get people into politics, there must be proper pay and conditions for them.

In May this year, approval was given for a special allowance to enhance the security of Oireachtas Members' homes and offices. Its purpose is to keep us safe. Councillors face the same safety issues. They do the same job we do. My office was burned down in 2019 in an arson attack. I was a councillor at the time.