Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Vice Chairman. This committee has a really good working relationship and we work in a very collegiate way. I think we should continue that in all of our discussions, notwithstanding people's different points of view.

I thank the Minister of State for coming in. Particularly for anybody watching this, it is important we put this discussion into some context. We have been having conversations over the last year or so, both in this committee and with the Minister, in respect of some forthcoming legislation, about strengthening the powers of local government and increasing the responsibility of our local elected representatives, not just in terms of the directly elected mayors but in terms of some of the other structural reforms the Minister has been proposing. At the same time, we all acknowledge that it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract as broad a spectrum of people into local politics as all of us would like. One of the reasons, although it is not the only one, is the very limited financial remuneration for city and county councillors. People from low-income families, mothers with children and people from a variety of backgrounds find it very difficult to take on the ever-growing responsibilities. We have to acknowledge that and it is important the public knows that.

It is also important that we state again that city and county councillors do not get a full-time wage. There are lots of people out there who think city and county councillors get a wage commensurate to some who work in the Houses, but that is not the case. In fact, there are many local authority representatives who either make very little money or who lose money because of the cost they incur in doing the work. That is particularly the case for county councillors from larger rural communities, and I say that as a Dublin Deputy and a former full-time councillor. Our conversation here is about trying to look at ways of improving the throughput of talented and capable people into local government, particularly at a time when their responsibilities are growing, and we are looking to give them more power and responsibility.

The Minister of State is probably not going to be able to answer a lot of the questions because he is going to tell us that the report is being finalised and we will have to await the outcome of that. In respect of the report by the journalist from the Irish Examineron "Morning Ireland", is it the case that the Minister of State is considering rolling this issue into broader public sector pay negotiations? If that is the case, or if that is one of the options, can he talk us through what that would mean, what that could look like, who would be responsible for negotiating that and what the kind of timelines would be, because it is the first time I have heard that publicly and that is certainly a very significant bit of information?

Can the Minister of State give us a commitment in terms of the timeline of the publication of the report his Department has commissioned and a timeline for the period within which he is going to come back with formal recommendations? One of the difficulties this committee has is that when the Government commissions a report, it takes a very long time to produce it. It then sits with the Minister - I am sure the Minister and the officials work very hard on it - and there is a long period of time before any action is outlined. I am looking for some timelines in respect of that. As the Minister knows from my submission to the Moorehead review, we strongly favour a shift to full-time, paid city and county councillors. We have made an interim proposal where there should be a kind of a two-grade payment for part-time and full-time councillors.

We are strongly of the view that all unvouched expenses should be abolished and replaced with a basic rate of pay for full-time and part-time councillors and a fully vouched system of expenses for additional cost of work, and we argued for that in the Oireachtas also. I am hopeful the Minister of State will move somewhere in that direction.