Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not the case that it only affects one-term councillors. If councillors are elected in the second half of a ten-year development plan, how much of an input will they have? I understand why the Government wants to extend the development plan, but the unintended consequences are that it affects the ability of councillors who are democratically elected to have a say in the way, for instance, Cork city's development plan is shaped. Local elections are coming up. People are running and putting forward ideas about what they want to see happen in their towns and cities. This new legislation will prevent them from having the democratic mandate they were elected by the people to bring forward. It is not only one-term councillors. What I saw in my time as a councillor was a reduction in the powers and input councillors have. I remember that at one time councillors sat on health boards and had input into roads and into many different aspects. Their functions have all been diluted over the years. We do not want to see a dilution of councillors' ability to have an input into strategy and development plans, because at the end of the day we would then lose local democracy. In fact, we need more local democracy, not less.