Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and our colleagues, the councillors. It is important that we represent the councillors. Most of us have served as councillors. I was a councillor for 20 years so I know exactly a councillor's role. I was a little disappointed by some of the Minister of State's remarks about councillors because he was once a councillor. By the way, he is in my constituency, which I welcome. The greatest issue is a councillor's role. Until this is got right and the councillor's role and the way in which councillors play a significant part in communities are addressed, it does not matter how many surveys are done. Ten or 20 surveys could be done but this will work. Councillors' roles are undermined. We should allow for their role and give them more money. What the Minister of State said is true: most councillors have two jobs. The reason for this is that they cannot afford to live on a councillor's pay. The Minister of State should not even have to look at this. We should give back more power to councillors. Most of the powers local authorities had were taken from them following the loss of our town councils, which was a nightmare because all our funding was cut and we ended up with councillors going to municipal meetings with no funding for town councils, which had a detrimental effect on towns throughout the country. The Minister of State should go back, look at this and ask how we might address it. We should give a larger increase in pay to our councillors. They deserve it for the work they do because it is a 24-7 job. All 949 councillors are there for the love it. However, the Minister of State needs to look at giving them back the powers that were taken from them. Until he addresses this, it does not matter how many reports or surveys are carried out - it will not work.

I was looking back on the time when the abolition-----