Mr. Paul Lemass:

I will try to take the questions in the order in which they were asked. I will address first the point made by Deputy Eoin Ó Broin.

The mindset is to ask what people are seeking to do through the reintroduction of town councils that cannot be done under the current system. If there was a real stumbling block, we would have to look at it. If something is broken, let us fix it. However, it is our sense that in general, at the high end, municipal district councils are working well, although I accept this not uniform across the country. There are 95 such councils and they are not all at the same level. However, it is my sense that they are working well. There are still area committees in the city with informal arrangements.

Reference was made to sub-county governance structures. That is exactly what we are trying to get at. The idea is to retain a single corporate entity but operate with significant powers at sub-county level. Decisions made by a municipal district council do not have to be discussed at plenary council meetings. Committee members have raised an interesting point in that regard. One of our concerns is not so much that the legislation does not provide for powers at municipal district council level but that actually powers are not being used in their operation. At plenary council meetings there is talk about street lights being broken, dog fouling and such matters which really should not be discussed at such meetings. The goal in plenary session is to have more strategic conversations about the county development plan and the budget, etc.

There is a concern that not all of the municipal district councils are fully using the powers available to them. There was a survey in which over 500 elected members participated. One of the questions asked was how satisfied were municipal district council members that they had a working knowledge of the reserved functions available to them in discharging their functions. The figure for those who were either very satisfied or satisfied was 62%. I accept that that leaves a figure of 37%, of whom 20% were neutral and 14% dissatisfied. Therefore, some work remains to be done in this area in terms of the provision of education and training. However, two thirds of municipal district council members are either satisfied or very satisfied with their working knowledge of the reserved functions available to them. That is a significant body of members.

That would suggest a significant body of 500 people. Likewise on the question, "How satisfied are you with the management and operation of meetings of municipal district members?", 84% responded as being very satisfied, 9% were neutral and 7% were dissatisfied. One would have to take the sense that it is not irreparably broken even if there are things we need to address.

In response to the question, "How satisfied are you that the relevant agenda items are being discussed at meetings of municipal district members rather than being discussed at plenary council level or other forums?", 56% responded as being satisfied. We accept it is not perfect, but this is evidence based on more than 500 elected members who returned their surveys. Therefore, it is a hard evidence base on how the municipal districts are working. It is available on the Department's website.