Mr. Seán O'Grady:

Go raibh míle maith agaibh a Chathaoirligh, a Sheanadóirí, a chomhairleoirí agus a dhaoine uaisle. In less than two months we will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the abolition of Ireland's town councils. In Phil Hogan's Putting People First document, more was promised than what was delivered in the intervening decade. The municipal entities that now exist were going to be given extra powers and responsibilities. However, ten years down the line nothing has transpired to improve the powers and responsibility of local authorities and it appears that the downward trajectory is set to continue.

In the last few decades, central government has transferred a very large number of public services to non-governmental agencies, in sectors of local government and health that were the responsibility of local government in the past. This major move away from democratic assemblies has had the effect of reducing the responsibility from national politicians and civil servants on these matters. I suspect that the strategy is to farm out the problem in order to have easier lives, as it were. This, together with a corporate mindset and the failure by central government, over decades, to introduce a financial model for local government, has rendered local government seriously wounded as a sister entity to the national government for the progression of our people.

In the Sunday Independent recently, Conor Skehan informed us that there are more than 30,000 charities in Ireland. The article went on to comment on how the non-profit sector has transferred a very large number of public services to these bodies. Many of us were hopeful that a comprehensive local government model to project us into the future would be in situ by now. Alas, central government was promoting a different concept. Mr. Skehan goes on to tell us that it is globally recognised that the lack of democratic oversight or accountability is the key weakness of this sector. Powerful and well-funded NGOs can distort public services away from the priorities, democratically established for the common good and towards the issues on which they are active.

In an interview last year, a former Minister vented some of his frustrations about how politics is now conducted. This former Minister is not running in the next general election and so has become more outspoken than he used to be. In a very telling comment, which the journalist, David Quinn, posted on X, he remarked, "I have said to colleagues that I would have more influence on Government policy if I was a middle-ranking official with an NGO than I have as a Government backbencher, and I regret that". In an article in the Irish Independent on Sunday, 7 April last, Mr. Quinn noted that the main parties are in thrall to lobby groups instead of their own grassroots members and voters. The great irony of the statement by the former Minister, who was a good Minister, was that he was part of the higher echelons of government that agreed to treat the democratic local government and the people together with the relevant Civil Service sectors and the lobbyists for the NGOs, with disdain, wittingly or unwittingly.

This leaves those of us who wish for meaningful local democratic government struggling for air. The enormous scale of the task the Senators have set themselves is seismic. It is mind-boggling that an arm of government has been continually trampled on by successive national governments over the past decades. Small minds and a national political psyche that sees local democratic government as an opponent to be continually kept down, lest it become a threat to those in the higher echelons, should long ago have been confined to the dustbin.

Without a thriving, democratic local government system, national government will continue to strive to retain affinity with the people and will eventually fall and fail. The local government system we have could only be described as minimalist, at the very best. We need a meaningful, effective and efficient system of local government that complements and assists national government to restore the confidence of the public in the political system once again.

I am not advocating that the town councils should be re-established but rather the towns should be used as the centre of a local government unit. Neither am I suggesting that NGOs should be significantly reduced but it must be recognised that democratic local government has suffered severely because of what has been ceded to these organisations. This must be reclaimed in the interests of democracy in the local government system. This can take many shapes and forms. My own preference is for a district unit that has a natural geographical, social, historical, economic and cultural affinity with the people. This is a model that would have the greatest potential to unify and straddle the urban-rural divide and bring decent representation and tangible local policies to the people that would seep into every home, townland and parish in the unit. Such a unit would give people an important input into the needs of their area and bring the administrative centre within easy reach. Any truly democratic, statutory assembly that is not, by and large, financially autonomous would not be worthwhile as there would not exist the basis for putting any proposal or project into effect and it would in time, lose the confidence of the people.

Without its own finances, budget and without a rating function and finance-generating functions, it would render such an assembly neutered, just like the present subcounty structure when compared with what existed before. This is not to mention the new functions that could be ceded to local authorities into the future. The proper democratic unit, as described, would have immense influence and new functions, such as substance abuse, care of the aged, crèche facilities and so on. I would maintain that the present county structure is too large. The county structure is too separate and remote from the people. In most countries this has been abolished as a unit of local government that is no longer fit for purpose. The Six Counties in Northern Ireland have lost the luxury of county units with some areas in the realm of local government, yet it has not depleted their affiliation or loyalty to their counties. As it happens they are currently the strongest province in Ireland in Gaelic football terms.

In any case, daunting as is the task the committee has taken on and unlikely as it may appear that it will meet with any success, it is a good and worthy venture. The Seanad must be congratulated on the noble journey it has decided to undertake.

As an aside, I took great delight when the people decided a few years back to retain Seanad Éireann against the Government of the day who offered this august assembly, with all its faults, as a sacrificial lamb. The people spurned the offer. Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh.