Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As long as that is done, I am happy.

In essence I regard this as an important piece of restoration work. Before Deputy Cassells asks the question, I confirm that I was a member of the Government that abolished town councils, which was a mistake. I have been around these Houses for a long time. People make mistakes all the time; political parties make mistakes. As I said in my reasoning, there was an antipathy to politics at the time with people blaming politicians for the economic crisis we were facing. I believe it was a mistake to remove the really important lowest tier of local government, which is town government.

I spent some time in the Custom House as Minister for the Environment and Local Government. There was always a certain antipathy to town government in the Custom House. The officials always felt it should be a county structure. There was probably an agenda item for a willing Minister to push that at any given juncture.

I couch my proposal in the context of what is going on internationally. We must have regard to the very serious erosion in people's confidence in politics and political systems. We certainly need to have a direct connection between politics and the electorate - our citizens. The most immediate and direct connecting point has been town government. I have been privileged to serve on Wexford Borough Council and Wexford County Council. I have been mayor of my own town and I know the direct connection between what used to be Wexford Corporation and the people of the town.

Town government also acts as a driver of economic and social activity in its hinterland. My honest evaluation is that the structure that replaced it, one of municipal districts, just has not worked. Even taking it as an honest effort, it has not worked. In my area, a quarter of the county is now a municipal area. It has diluted the town focus and many people have disconnected themselves from their local representative. They would not know them in the immediate sense that would always have been the case in the past.

We have talked to people across the country and introduced this legislation. It does not replicate exactly what was in place before the abolition of town councils. We have proposed what might be a better model of having a new town council. We would not have the three categories that used to exist: the borough councils which were corporations; the town councils; and the town commissions. We propose one category of town council. It would be available to every municipal area of 1,000 dwellings and 5,000 people with a recognisable municipal heart. That would be determined by the local government commission. It would be available to towns which, for historical reasons, never had town councils in the past even though they had population bases that are much greater than some of the areas that had. It would not restore town councils to some of the very smaller ones that people often pick out when they are arguing against town councils. It has often been said 70 votes would get someone elected to certain town councils. I will not mention which of them, but there are a few that do the rounds periodically.

I believe this is a robust suggestion. The idea would be to restore to town councils all the powers that existed in the old town councils. It would be a rock of sense and would be a good democratic thing to do. It certainly would not be particularly expensive because the administration is happening in any event. The only additionality would be the very modest cost of an additional small number of councillors. We are suggesting nine councillors for towns with populations below 25,000 and 15 where the population is above 25,000.

I have set out the proposal in great detail. I would be very happy to provide the committee with other documentation on European norms. Our level of local democracy is very much out of sync with European norms. More worryingly, we are very much out of sync in the level of money we spend through local authorities. Most of the big financial decisions that impact on local communities are determined centrally. People might think that, as a former Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I would like to cling onto that, but that is not the case.

It is important that we consider the models of the best performing countries, particularly the Nordic countries, where up to one third of resources are expended at local level. We are at the other end of that extreme and I will be happy to provide the documentation to the committee to show that.

I hope I will be able to answer any questions from members. At the committee's request, I have asked others to accompany me to this meeting. Two of them are practitioners who wish to advocate for their areas. Ms Marie Moloney is from Killarney, which had the strongest lobby immediately after the abolition. People felt that Killarney was a place that needed local representation and considered it very important. Mr. Pio Smith is from Drogheda, which is an ancient borough with an extraordinarily long tradition. It was a great mistake to abolish that town council. Dr. Aodh Quinlivan is a lecturer in governance in University College Cork, UCC, and an expert on local government matters.