Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister of State to the House. Many of my colleagues have raised very pertinent issues about the governance of the various local authorities and the influence that councillors have. As time goes on, this influence is becoming lessened at local level. At the end of the day, the issue is not so much about the councillors but the people they represent. They are people that we represent as well. This is about the system of democracy. The more we strip away powers at local government level, the less responsibility and input the democratic system has. It is important that councillors' input is strengthened rather than eroded. While I am on the topic of councillors, I met with some LAMA members last week with the Deputy Leader of the Seanad. There are a number of issues. The Moorhead report was welcome. It was a bit of a watershed with regard to bringing councillors up to a level of pay that is in line with the work they do. It did not mean fully paying them for the work they do but at least it was a lot better than they had. Some disappointing things were built into that, however. For example, chairs of the strategic policy committees, SPCs, are now being taxed since that. That is wrong. We would not have it in this House and it is wrong for councillors as well. We should not be taxed.

They are also now being taken off boards of higher education, which again I feel is very wrong. At the end of the day, when things go wrong at a local level and we are here in the Oireachtas, the councillors are on the ground meeting families day in, day out. They are the first point of call when something goes wrong, not just for local authority issues but for all issues across the board, including education, health and whatever it may be. That was a sad day when that happened.

Regarding the Moorhead report and retrospective pay, apparently the salary at that stage was supposed to be in line with grade 4 but councillors are not seeing increments in line with grade 4, and that needs to be corrected as well.

Gratuity for councillors is based on the old salary. I think Senator O’Loughlin already raised that point. It needs to be brought in line with the new salary.

As we know, in the day and age we are in, nobody can do without broadband and nobody more so, even since Covid, than councillors. The 20% allowance given to councillors is insufficient. No more than us, their broadband should be supplied to them. More and more meetings are done online; not just councillor meetings but other meetings throughout their electoral areas.

Moreover, their powers and say in respect of county development plans and planning matters are constantly being eroded. I think sometimes the planning regulator oversteps the mark. We cannot be undermining the representation of our councillors with local area plans, town plans and county development plans. In doing so, we are actually undermining our democracy. It is a retrograde step.

Moreover, regarding Irish Water, particularly in respect of our smaller towns and villages where development is a major issue because we are not getting to work on our treatment plants quickly enough, it will be important to look at whether there is any avenue for extra funds in this budget to ensure there is a greater injection of funds and a supply of water treatment plants across the country.