Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for holding this meeting. Senator Boyhan cited the number of elected councillors for each party. I do not know whether he threw us under Independents or "others", but we are neither. We are Independent Ireland, a new party with 23 councillors, one MEP and three TDs, and we hope we will grow, but we will find that out as time goes on. I sincerely hope this meeting is not a talking shop, because democracy is being eroded day by day in this country and it has been going on for a number of years. We talked about the town councils, but I worry it works its way through to the community councils and local community organisations. They are dying a death, especially in more rural areas I know about, and that is a destruction of our democracy. The LEADER groups took that away from the local people and it is more politicised now, which was a shockingly bad move when it happened a number of years ago under the previous Government.

I was elected to the council in June 2014 and to the Dáil in February 2016. In the short time I was on the council, if there were water problems, you could work in the local council to get them resolved. You could talk about refuse and get it resolved, and you could look into county development plans and get something good for your community. County managers listened. Now, it seems as though it is dictation from the top. You cannot say anything but for being pointed to Irish Water. Nobody speaks on its behalf, except when it is brought before the Dáil every once a while in committees, where the representatives answer questions for a couple of hours and that is the end of it. For local public representatives, it is a disaster. Refuse has gone out of the control of local authorities. County development plans come and go and nobody has a say in them. It is all dictated from the top. Councillors have to play ball, and if they do not, they will be singled out as a bad boy in school, and we know what happens to bad boys in school.

As I said, I hope this will not be a talking shop. I hope it will focus on how we can create solutions and give democracy back to the people. We saw last night that whether Members of the Dáil were in favour of the migration pact or not, it was a disastrous decision. It should have been given back to the people to make that decision on such an important issue, the sovereignty of our country. That decision should have been made by the people. I guarantee that the majority of the people of Ireland wanted that to happen, and they do not want referendums every day of the week. They would have made a clear decision but they were denied that. We are talking about democracy being there for the people and so on, but what we did last night in our own Dáil was the reverse of that.

Planning was mentioned. So many people have difficulty with planning in their local towns to get houses or whatever. Again, county development plans are no longer dictated by the local councillors, but they should be. They should at least have a strong say in them. Even where they do have a say now, there is a planning regulator to make sure it will be blocked one way or the other. Democracy is being beaten down, every which way it can be, and that is what led to the set-up of Independent Ireland and will lead to more and more Independents being elected. People are frustrated and they feel that the parties have let them down. It is time for the parties to sit up, listen to the people and work with them.

I am not here to point the finger at anyone, because I have made mistakes in my life, as we all do, but when we talk away town councils and see the little units of democracy being eroded bit by bit with the LEADER groups and so on, we are taking the power away from the people and they are sick of that. They want a bit of their own power back. They elect people to represent their views. They do not think their views are being represented in the Houses of the Oireachtas, and they do not think they are being represented at the local authorities. That is why only 50% of people are voting. It is leading to frustration but the worst thing they should ever do is stay at home, so we are going to have to do a lot of deep thinking. Personally, I respect anyone who puts forward proposals on where we could improve, but I will not attend meetings if I think they are going nowhere. If they are talking shops, I will be out the door. It is as simple as that. People spend six minutes on something they know is going to go nowhere. I am here to make improvements, ever so small, as long as they happen, but if they will not work, I will have to accept that and work through some other channel.

As for where we should do that, we should look at our local authorities and give back bits of power to the local councillors, regardless of whether they are from a party, are an Independent or something else. If that does not work, I shudder to think what is going to happen next.