Councillor Noel Bourke:

As the chairman of LAMA stated, we are focusing on the conditions under which councillors work. In answer to Deputy Noel Coonan's question on the role of the local elected councillor, we see ourselves as being closest to the people who elect us and whom we represent. Frequently, we are the first port of call for those with particular difficulties in our constituencies, whether they are related to the local authority or other agencies such as the HSE. We see ourselves in that role. We may then take the matter to persons such as Deputy Noel Coonan. What we are trying to do is have put in place a structure that would facilitate us in doing this in an efficient and effective way, in having the necessary wherewithal, with contacts in the various State agencies or wherever else it might be whom we would have the authority to contact to raise issues of particular concern to us. We want to be efficient and effective. It is particularly important that we be so, given the reduced number of councillors. Their numbers will reduce from 1,627 to 949 after next May.

We have listed a couple of points in the document which we have tried to keep as short and as simple as possible. The first refers to the funding of LAMA. We receive a contribution from each local authority and there was a suggestion in Putting People First that this might not happen. We have discussed all of these matters with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, with whom we have had a constructive and positive discussion. We are hopeful he will see our point of view and make the necessary changes. One matter we want to see dealt with in the Bill or the regulations, wherever it applies, is that of local authorities continuing to make a contribution to the running of LAMA. As I said, there is a suggestion in Putting People First, on page 149, Ref. No. 11.6.5, that this might not happen. We would certainly like the current arrangement to continue. There are 38 local authorities affiliated to LAMA. However, there will be only 31 local authorities after the next local elections.

Our income stream will be reduced in any event. It is important that we should still receive the same level of contribution from the 31 councils.

We take our role of running seminars for our members very seriously. We do not merely run them for the sake of doing so or in order to bring people away somewhere for a day or two or whatever. We do a great deal of work on the seminars we run. As is stated in our document, we run two seminars each year - one in spring and the other in the autumn. We recently held a very successful seminar in Ennistymon, which was addressed by eight excellent speakers and was very well attended. There was a great deal of discussion and interaction between members and the people who addressed the seminar. The theme of the seminar was "Local Authorities Driving Economic Development". Our spring seminar took place in Gorey, County Wexford, and the theme was "Local Authorities in Ireland: New Challenges - New Opportunities". Again, there were some excellent speakers at the seminar, and the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy O'Dowd, addressed us on the issue of Irish Water. The latter is a subject that is very important to councillors. The Minister of State delivered an excellent presentation and there was a great deal of interaction, discussion and questions on the matter. The Minister of State provided clarity on a number of issues. I mention this in order to underline the point that we take our role in running these seminars extremely seriously.

In the Putting People First document, the Minister refers to specifying particular organisations that will run these seminars. LAMA is not mentioned in said document, which does refer to the amalgamated Association of County and City Councils, ACCC, and the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, AMAI. We want LAMA to be included and we would like the committee to ensure that this will happen. We do not want to blow our own trumpet but we are of the view that we have a very good record in running seminars appropriate to councillors at the particular times to which I refer. We want to continue running these seminars and providing this service to our members. As a result, we want to ensure that LAMA will be named as one of the bodies deemed suitable by the Minister to run seminars and conferences.

As far as the powers and functions of district councils are concerned, we want these to be devolved as much as possible to local level. As we state in our document, however, we want it to be done in a sensible way that will avoid duplication. We would like local district councils to have as much authority and power as possible without creating additional work that will not give rise to any additional benefits.

Councillors are paid one quarter of the amount paid to Senators, or just over €16,000. This money is taxable and we pay PAYE, the universal social charge, the pension levy and PRSI in respect of it. As a result, our net pay is approximately €8,000. Our remuneration was recently reduced in line with the Haddington Road agreement. This was because Senators' salaries were reduced and ours were automatically reduced as a result. It was not much of a reduction, but we think it was wrong.

Some of the larger councils have supports for their members, including IT support and stationery, but most do not provide such supports. One could argue that it is our responsibility to provide for such supports in our budgets. However, at a time when money is scarce - it always seems to be scarce at local authority level - we are somewhat shy about allocating money for this purpose at the expense of some local service that is important to the people we represent. When we met the Minister, we stated that we would like his office to issue some guidelines on that particular topic. Again, we would appreciate it if the committee would pursue the matter on our behalf.