Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and welcome everybody here this morning. It was great to hear from four former Ministers of local government and having served in local government for 12 years, it is probably the most rewarding position in the sense that you are closest to the public and are answering their day-to-day issues. I have seen a lot of changes over that 12 years and since that are not positive in respect of local democracy. It is very hard to focus on one area as it is all-encompassing and we could start in respect of putting people first. I was the cathaoirleach in Wicklow at the time when that was coming in and I saw a lot of positives in that but that has not actually related back to the ground. We can have the argument about town councils or no town councils but what happened was that the municipal districts were set up but as a compensation measure, town teams were set up to replace town councils. I have a major issue in how practically these town teams are working in local authorities. A lot of town teams around the country have more access to the officials than our local representatives. They are planning projects and delivering projects without our local councils involved. That needs to be looked and needs to be reformed.

I thought bringing in powers enabling the councillors to vote on the property tax was a positive move but again, was not fully understood by the councils as to what exactly they could do. Equally, the officials were behaving in an autocratic manner. It was a case of "you cannot decide where your 15% increase is going to be spent, we are going to decide it." It is stuff like this that went against what possibly could have been a forward-moving measure and in fairness to the property tax, that has evolved a bit better over the years. The municipal districts are now getting a better understanding of how they control it and spend it because in our first one, we went for a 15% reduction because the chief executive would not allow us to decide where that money was spent. The national planning framework and the Office of the Planning Regulator have actually ended the last democratic process our councillors have had, that is, their county development plan. Even the planning Bill that is going through the Dáil at the moment is eroding that further again with a ten-year plan. You can now serve on your local authority and never have a say in your county development plan. Deputy Ó Cuív and myself would have had several ding-dongs in relation to the NPF and I have a major problem with it but again, it is removing it from the ground up and it is becoming a top-down process.

The other thing I want to focus on and maybe the witnesses can comment on it is that while we are removing powers from local authority members, we are also removing powers from the Oireachtas. Whether it be Irish Water or the National Transport Authority, we have created these quangos that are no longer answerable directly to ourselves either here or in the council chamber. It was brought up at a meeting recently within our party as to whether we can look at something to make Irish Water, the National Transport Authority, etc. more accountable to our local authority members. If nothing else, we can do that.

We are all seeing, with regard to the local elections, that it is getting almost impossible for people who get involved in local democracy and something needs to be challenged and some solution is needed. Mr. Dempsey mentioned full-time councillors. I was at an Oireachtas committee - I am unsure whether Deputy Phelan was there that day - at which there was a clear line from the Department that under no circumstances would it even discuss the concept of a full-time councillor. Yet we all know that at this point in time, it is a full-time position. We have all mentioned that we are not giving the support they need, whether it be legal or financial. We are sending them in there to a vacuum.

In relation to our last county development plan, we were proposing an amendment to the development plan that was perfectly legitimate under the legislation. My colleagues were called in by the chief executive and the head of forward planning told them that under no circumstances could they move that motion and that they were acting illegally. In fact, they were not. When it came to the variation of development plan, my colleagues forced it through and the Office of the Planning Regulator agreed with our members. It is again the point of our councils not having the back-up and support they need at times when they have to make crucial decisions on our behalf. Unless we restore powers, however, whatever powers they may be, we are eroding the value of our local authority. We do need to do something about that.

Deputy Phelan mentioned that they have shied away from serious decisions and maybe we need to look at these decisions. I remember one major one in Wicklow was about a landfill. What should have happened was the other four areas should have passed the vote. That exposed the local councillors but there are ways around that. As for Traveller accommodation, I see where the Deputy is coming from but we honestly need to do something as otherwise, I do not know what function they are actually serving. I welcome the witnesses' contributions and I could talk about this for hours but unless we support our councils and give some powers back to them or make these quangos we created accountable to local authority members, we realistically are at nothing.