Ms Joanna Tuffy:

I sometimes have disagreements with Councillor O'Connell and we have good debates, but today I agree absolutely 100% with what he said. I do not think the answer here is to have almost 1,000 full-time local councillors but to have more councillors and smaller units, a bit like what Senator Cassells said. When Dr. Aodh Quinlivan, an expert on local government, in the context of the predecessor of the AILG, looked at the issue of town councils, it was found that they were very efficient. Having smaller units of councils is more efficient.

It is extremely important as well that councils be representative. We have bus drivers on our councils, as well as carers, businesspeople, people who work for NGOs and a whole cross-section of the community. If we brought in full-time councillors, it would change the nature of local government and community representation and it would be a very bad move. It would be very costly and, in the long term, probably unpopular and unsustainable. I therefore very much do not agree that there should be full-time councillors.