Mr. Noel Dempsey:

I am very grateful for the opportunity to be here today. Deputy Howlin talked about the length of time since he was a Minister. I am not much longer than that; I was his successor. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this topic. I have a passion for local government that extends back over 50 years. I always believed that it serves as a cornerstone of our democracy. It embodies the principles of government by the people and for the people in a very real and tangible way. That is extremely important for democracy, and for respect for democracy, which is something that erodes by the day.

In my contribution today, I will focus on the two major attempts at reform of the local government system over the past 25 years. Two of us here were involved in one and Deputy Phelan was involved in the other. I will consider how or whether they enhanced the role of the councillor. The 1990s was an interesting time for local government. It became the focus of attention after decades of decline. The Barrington report of 1991 drew fresh attention to local government, the possibilities of local government, the problems faced by it. It highlighted very clearly the need for reform, the lack of integration of local services, the limited range of services that local government provided and the fact that it had no financial base, no local taxation. Among the recommendations made by the Barrington report was the devolution of a range of functions and powers, introduction of a local taxation system and, following from the point just made, restricting the manager's term to a ten-year tenure. That formed the basis for the Government's White Paper, "Better Local Government", which was published by my predecessor at that time, Deputy Howlin, in the latter part of 1996. I think it is fair to say that we had many a good ding-dong but I welcomed the thrust of that document.