Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the members of the AILG, LAMA and the councillors, and I thank them for their engagement and the submissions they made. I also thank Ms Sara Moorhead for her interim report and the Minister of State for his work and the attention he has given. I understand the committee is under time pressure and, therefore, I will condense my remarks. There is no point rehashing everything that was said.

I turn to the witnesses' concluding remarks because therein lies the meat of the issue. The final line related to how it will be a difficult task to reconcile positions and to do so without clearly defining a way forward for local government as a whole. In itself, that shines a light on the issues at play. Many genuine opinions on the work councillors do have been expressed at the committee, and I made a submission in that regard on behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party. As I have stated at the committee previously, when I first joined the local authority in 1999 before spending 17 years there, the motivation for everyone doing it was the same: a commitment to one's local community.

In the time I was a local councillor, the role changed drastically in the context of what one was expected to grasp, namely, the legislation passed by the Houses, its implementation, and reading in-depth analysis of what is expected of a local authority member. To report back by the end of the first quarter, if one is to adjudicate on what exceptional remuneration is, as the report has done, one will have to delve into the extent of the work being done on research and the role. One can apply oneself as much or as little as one wants, but one is expected to be at the beck and call of the public. It must also be borne in mind that local authority members are subject to a higher level of public scrutiny through the advent of social media than they ever were when the Minister of State and I first became councillors. They are effectively part time and subject to considerable public discourse, which can be hostile. They are not full-time, professional politicians, as we are. The concluding remarks made the point that there is a debate about whether they should be full time, but that is not reconciled in any way. The Minister of State said he will implement the recommendations in full, but will he outline his own impressions of that concluding remark? I am sure he has thoughts on it and I would like to hear them.