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

It is always good to attend this committee to discuss local government. The point was well made by Deputy Howlin in respect of the serious issue of housing being relegated in the discussion. I welcome all of the delegates to the debate. I am well used to listening to Councillor Pio Smith on my local radio station, LMFM, with Deputy O'Dowd. I am familiar with many of the issues about which he spoke such as councillors being outvoted on the issue of parking charges or the status of the relationship with Drogheda Port Company.

Like Deputy Howlin, I am proud to have been mayor of my town. It is almost 20 years since I was first elected to Navan Town Council in the 1999 local elections. I believe passionately in the process and the proposals made. I have also formally made proposals. In 2017 Fianna Fáil introduced a Bill to seek to have town councils restored. The progress of the Bill was frustratingly slow after Second Stage and the Bill was eventually killed by the Cabinet last week. It will be interesting to see the reaction to the proposals we heard this morning. I believe in the rebalancing of democracy, as outlined by Dr. Quinlivan. I was troubled by the manner in which the Government had killed the Bill and especially the attempts of the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to frame the debate. He believes giving a citizen two votes, one in electing a town council and one in electing a county council, would in some way be undemocratic. I do not believe it would be. Nothing is more undemocratic than what happened in the abolition of the councils in the first place. It is wrong to frame my proposals and those of Deputy Howlin as undemocratic. It is flawed and misses the point that, as Councillor Smith outlined, large towns are unique spaces which require special management, budgets and development plans. As Dr. Quinlivan said, the over-centralisation is inexcusable. In effect, we are bottom of the table across Europe. I agree with Deputy Howlin's assertion that we have diluted the focus on towns by virtue of what has happened. They have been left the poorer as a result of the shift from their statutory basis to the flawed municipal district model.

Ms Moloney referred to the launch by the three unions, namely, Fórsa, SIPTU and Connect, wh6ich I attended. A welcome debate has been instigated. The campaign is entitled, More Power to You, and there is a five point plan, the first of which is democracy and the call for the reinstatement of the town council system. When Councillor Dermot Lacey was present, we discussed funding powers. Ms Moloney's contribution was focused on Killarney and the rates base in the town. I have a very good friend on Killarney Municipal District Council, Councillor Niall Kelleher, who is also vice president of the chamber of commerce. It is interesting that Dr. Quinlivan mentioned the rates take in Killarney and efficiency. Councillor Kelleher explained to me the current situation in the town. The income from rates in the Killarney municipal district is approximately €10.9 million, of which €7.3 million comes from the very small centre of the town.

Since the abolition of Killarney Town Council the money raised in the town has to be redistributed. That is infuriating the business community because it is raising the lion's share of the rates base and it is not being reinvested, as had been the case, in the town core. That is a fundamental issue on which Deputy Howlin and I agree. What is Deputy Howlin's view of the retention of the rates base and the examination of the boundary which has been a key bugbear for decades for directors of finance and county managers? We went through a boundary extension in Navan when John Gormley was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and in the proposals, a loop was drawn around Tara Mines, which would have a huge rates base, to make sure it was kept outside the potential town boundary. Deputy Howlin said this would be a different model, that the town boundaries from an administrative and financial point of view would reflect the true town and boundaries would not be divvied up to ensure the lucrative rates were retained by the county and not the town.

I presume the Deputy would seek to reinstate the development plan process on a statutory basis within the town council system. Councillor Smith mentioned the role of the mayor in respect of the Drogheda Port Company. If the Government will give us any information, there may be a pilot plebiscite for Cork, Limerick and Waterford for the city bases. Has the Deputy thought about the impact of that on large town council bases such as Drogheda, Navan or Wexford and their role? That is an important point for the rebalancing of powers.

Will Dr. Quinlivan talk about the role of the directly-elected mayor in a town council system? I know from engagements with town twinning processes in Europe that the role and power of the mayor there is quite distinctive. There is a mini-cabinet as well in the town authorities.

My proposals set a threshold slightly higher than the 5,000 Deputy Howlin proposes. It is an issue of debate in all parties because Deputies will want the threshold set for their towns. I believe we should go first for the larger towns such as Drogheda, Navan, Wexford and Killarney to give them the sense of autonomy in respect of budgetary and planning powers to achieve substantial things. Does Deputy Howlin believe that if Drogheda gets it Ardee should get it. Similarly, if Navan and Wexford get it, then should Kells and New Ross also get it? The figure of 5,000 is arbitrary but could the Deputy explain the beliefs behind that figure?