Mr. Tom Fortune:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and Senators for the invitation. I am delighted to be here. I made a submission on 26 September and also sent in an opening statement for today. I just have some quick notes I will put before members.

I believe the current situation in local democracy is at crisis.

There is an existential threat to the councillor's role. I have been observing it for the past ten years. It has taken off at the pace of a 100 m sprint in the past four or five years and is getting faster. I hope that this meeting will not just lead to talking, but also to action. We are depending on action to happen quickly because, as we speak, the system is changing and our role is being eroded. We are being undermined and there is significant duplication of our roles. The powers are gone and the town teams, which duplicate our role, are the new vogue. If people are interested, they should get a copy of the terms of reference of the proposed Bray town team. There is so much duplication of the councillor’s role, it is frightening. JPCs have been mentioned. Look at the Land Development Agency, Part 8 of the planning Acts and its implications for us, and housing. Our input into budgets is a joke. The budgets are presented and we are told what they are, but we cannot discuss them at district level because parts of them do not get approved until three months afterwards. It is schoolboy stuff. It is crazy. What about our input into projects under, for example, the URDF? The NTA has all of the funding control. It is slapping down funds and saying they must be spent this way, otherwise it will take them back. Councillors have no input into the matter. If someone is the lucky councillor in whose area funding is going to be spent, that councillor can say, “Yippee, I got it". Anyone can say that. However, if the councillor is not in that loop, it looks as if he or she is doing nothing. It is crazy.

We received correspondence from some Senators recently about changes to SPCs. We probably will not know more about those until after the upcoming elections. Previously, we lost control of refuges. The development plan is a disaster. We are just supposed to sit there and nod it through. We are being told by various sections of central government how we should perform and what we should and should not say. It is ridiculous.

Public participation networks, PPNs, are basically doing councillors’ work. We are democratically elected. All of these other people are not. For example, town team members are being hand-picked. From listening to other councillors, Wicklow seems to be driving this like a coach and horses. In some cases, the members are people who have never been involved in their communities and no one knows who they are. The town teams are being set up as legal entities. How does one stop this? It needs to be stopped because it is crazy.

We cannot get legal advice. Recently, I was looking for a report from a file but was told I could not have it because there was some kind of investigation ongoing. I checked that out and learned what I had been told was not accurate or true. I was told that, under the legal advice, I could not have the file. When I asked to look at the legal advice, I was told it was personal to the executive of the council. I mean, come on. What are we at?

A key role of the public representative is accountability, but we are frustrated in that. We are seen as mavericks if we ask certain questions or speak out too often. Everything going back to the centre is an attack on accountability. That is really what is going on. What is the role and function of the democratically elected councillor in this undermining strategy? Who is driving this? Where has it come from? When was it decided and by whom? None of us knows. I have asked these questions for the past four years and cannot get an answer. The treatment of democratically elected councillors is now so bad that we need a shop steward. Local government is undermined. The local authority is just an administrative hub carrying out the instructions of the Department, the unelected government. Who has oversight of what is happening? As I see it, no one has. There is no initiative. We talk about teamwork and co-operation, but it is all lip service. On a scale of one to ten, with one being terrible and ten being great, we are probably on two where communication is concerned. There is a lack of information, answering of emails and responding to phone calls. Our local authority lashes out press releases with no prior alert to the councillors. Local authorities are applying for funding with no discussion with public representatives. We are just told about project X and project Y.

The key role of the councillor is to help and facilitate constituents in navigating local and national government and to oversee accountability on behalf of the public, but we are being stopped from doing that. Where is all of this coming from? What is going on? What is the role of the councillor? This undermines the councillor’s credibility. Wannabe councillors are telling the public that they will do everything over the next five years, but they will not. They are going into a system where they will be handcuffed from the time they enter.

What is to be done? There has been enough thinking and reports already. While all of this is going on, the councillors’ role is being destroyed for the reasons I have outlined. We are being taken out. Obviously, if they take us out, the Seanad will be next. It is logical. We need action now. We should get something public from, for example, Seanad Éireann in written form and have it sent to the CCMA. I do not know who is in charge of the CCMA, to be honest. No one seems to be in charge and it can do what it likes. We are being steamrolled. I feel very strongly about this, as my cathaoirleach will tell people.