John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Murphy made a number of valid points, not on town councils but on the size of municipal districts. This arose previously and I recall discussing it with Deputy Ó Cuív. Forty is the upper limit for a council, but 18 for a county the size of Roscommon, regardless of its population, is not enough. The same is true of a county the geographical size of Leitrim, where it takes more than an hour to travel from one end to the other. If we increased the figure to 20, that would allow there to be four municipal districts in the likes of Roscommon, and that should never have happened. Deputy Howlin mentioned legislation being brought in and I know the famous victory Senator Boyhan was referring to regarding the merger in Galway-----