Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation. I am surprised by the statement that the reform will bring us to par in terms of the ratio of councillors to population. In fact, it does not; it drives it further out of line. I am not sure how these figures are being compared. In Denmark, there is one councillor for every 1,115 people and in France there is one for every 118 people; we will have one for every 4,830. Applying the ratio in the North, the new reforms will lead to one councillor per 1,190 people. Sinn Féin is not happy with that but we live with it because we must negotiate with people. This drives us out of line with the North. We will have fewer councillors per head of population than we will have in the North under the reform.

What powers and functions would the Association of County and City Councils like to see devolved? It has been mentioned that much of the power devolved to local municipality districts is Mickey Mouse stuff, but this is by default and by virtue of the fact that they are being set up. Can the witnesses name three powers they would like to see devolved from central government? What powers would they like to see transferred from county managers or from executive functions to reserved functions? The Association of County and City Councils has complained about this over the years and we stand with them.

Can the witnesses indicate their position on the fact that each local authority will have two representatives on regional authorities? How will that pan out in terms of party or group representation? It could mean that two parties will control the regional assemblies. I will repeat the questions because the witnesses got distracted for a minute.