Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A Chathaoirligh and members of the committee, it is an absolute pleasure and honour to be here with them on behalf of An Taoiseach and the leader of Fine Gael, Deputy Simon Harris, and as the Minister of State with responsibility for local government and planning.

First, I commend the committee on taking on the important topic of the future of local democracy. I also commend the committee members on the very thorough manner in which they have gone about their work over the past number of weeks and months.

It is fitting that this committee is considering these matters in the year that we mark the 125th anniversary of the first local government elections in this country. I take the opportunity to congratulate all of the people who ran in this year’s local elections. I wish them all the very best in their term in office. They have at this stage taken up their councillor roles and met for the very first time in their new plenary councils. They have a critical and important role to fulfil over the next five years.

It has been said, including at this committee, that the system of government in this country is too centralised and, as a consequence, our local government system is weak, and has fewer functions and less autonomy than many of our European neighbours. It is important to recognise that local government is a constitutionally separate arm of Government and local authorities are fully independent entities with responsibility under the law for the performance of their functions. While it may be that local government here does not hold the full range of functions delivered by local government in some other European countries, local government in Ireland still delivers services vital to the running of our economy, cities, towns and villages, and communities. Our 31 local authorities play a key role in making the places in which we live, impacting the lives of citizens in many different, sometimes unnoticed and unheralded, ways.

In fact, local authorities provide in excess of 1,100 services often in partnership with some 30 central Departments and public bodies. Many of those programmes are key deliverables under critical Government policies. For example, the national development plan, Housing for All, active travel, Age Friendly Ireland, Town Centre First and the climate action plan among many others, all require significant local authority input to deliver.

The role of local authorities in the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine humanitarian response are fundamental to the State’s ability to manage those emergencies. I would argue that the strengthening of our local government system is, therefore, an evolving process and I would accept the more needs to be done in this space.

The 2014 local government reform legislation was an important step in that evolution. Those reforms introduced significant new economic and community development functions to local government. They dissolved 80 town councils, which represented only 14% of the population, without representing the wider hinterland, and provided for the establishment of 95 municipal districts, covering the entire area of local authorities. This has been a contentious topic that many Senators and councillors have raised previously in this forum. The 2014 reforms also introduced important new public participation mechanisms, like the public participation networks and the local community development committees.

A further, very significant evolution was the introduction this year of a directly elected mayor in Limerick. It is another key reform milestone. I take this opportunity to congratulate John Moran on his election as Mayor of Limerick and look forward to working with him in the near future.

I am pleased to report that local authorities are now in a stable financial position, following the financial crisis for many years. While funding from central government must be used for specific services, 56% of local authority revenue income is derived from local sources such as commercial rates, charges for goods and services, and the local property tax.

As well as elected mayors having discretion to influence the level of income raised, they also have discretion to determine local spending priorities through the adoption of annual budgets. The Government also introduced significant improvements, as Deputy McAuliffe said, in the terms and conditions available for councillors, all of which make the role more accessible and sustainable. They include a 56% increase in the annual salary-type payment since 2021, a new allowance scheme to assist councillors in carrying out their roles similar to that available for Dáil Members, an improved retirement gratuity scheme, the introduction of maternity leave for councillors and a maternity-related administrative support allowance, and a new security allowance to help councillors enhance their personal security arrangements. These improvements played a positive part in the high rate – 86% in total - of sitting councillors declaring to contest the 7 June elections.

I thank the committee for undertaking this worthwhile consultation and for the invitation to attend today. I look forward to further discussions on this matter.