Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was beginning to talk about the new construct and the bigger part of County Roscommon being in County Westmeath. Counties Waterford and Kilkenny were also mentioned in that context. There is another very serious development which, if it were to take hold, would have huge ramifications for democracy. In recent years I have noted a move towards corporatism, a European idea of the 1930s that, thankfully, we eschewed in favour of democracy. The idea is that representative groups form the ruling structures, rather than allowing a system of one person, one vote at a certain age, regardless of whether people are well educated. This measure seems to be putting a toe in the water in respect of a wider thought process and I suspect that is all it is. The new committee will have a mixture of elected individuals and nominees who will be nominated by the cathaoirligh. However, we have no idea of what the constraints will be. It is one of those selective processes where certain qualifications put a person in the "in" group in society and get them onto committees such as this. It contrasts with being selected by one's peers, by which I mean the electorate.

The proposal refers to people with experience in the provision of transport and housing, the development of infrastructure or business and trade. I note that they will not have a vote, although that could change later. However, they will have enormous influence, which is why they are being put there. They would not be there if they were not going to have enormous influence. I see the process being widened progressively to the general local authority scene because that is how the system works. It is a big idea, but it will hit a wall if it moves forward too quickly; therefore, it will creep forward. Nevertheless, the people involved will be given the most significant of powers, namely, the power to be involved in planning.

The new group is not representative. There will be no one on it from RAPID programme areas. The people chosen who will be upper middle class and living in salubrious surroundings will have power over those living in less salubrious surroundings in towns, many of which are included in RAPID programme areas. People living in housing estates bring a lot of expertise, as well as knowledge of what it is like to be at the bottom of the pile and have planning ideas imposed on them without much choice. Urban areas by far have the biggest social problems and levels of deprivation. Poor urban areas have the biggest drug problems because of social segregation, but the people who will be nominated will come from a certain class and not have suffered the effects of the problems mentioned. I suggest the Minister of State looks at this matter again. If we want good planning, we need to ensure these urban communities will be represented. They have tended to be represented in the normal democratic way by virtue of being numerous, but the Minister is including super influencers to take away that power.

The other sector that is totally being ignored is the community and voluntary sector which is of enormous importance in terms of the well-being of Irish society. If we were to take that sector out of the communities in which we all live, they would be destroyed because a lot of what is good, positive and wholesome and gives huge satisfaction to people does not come under the heading of "It is the economy, stupid ". That is such a trite statement because it is not all about the economy but about quality of life.

While the amendments do not directly relate to Galway, they are a precursor of the new approach to local authorities. They are putting the toe in the water for the first time in respect of a new approach that indicates to us that we cannot trust the people elected by the people and that we need to get the elite in control. It is to state, "If we get away with this, we will keep going". It derives from European thinking of the 1930s and we all know what happened in those years. Thankfully, this was an ordinary plain democracy that was run by the people for the people and we avoided many of the conflicts to which the other approach led.