Mr. Joe Malone:

I thank the committee for the invitation.

There has been a lot of talk about town councils but I would like to see the reintroduction of the borough council. I was originally a borough councillor, from 2019 to 2014, when the local government Act put paid to that. As a municipal district member of Kilkenny city council, I feel we now have very few, if any, powers now. It is all done in the council headquarters in John Street. With the old borough council, there were nine of them but they were abolished. Not one member appearing before the committee has mentioned the borough council. Is there a possibility or a grá from the party members who are sitting behind me or the Senators to my left to bring back borough councillors? That was where the real power was.

I loved the time I spent on the borough council and much was achieved. I recall that Phil Hogan was Minister at the time and, to be fair to him, he delivered a lot. The 2014 Act came in then and destroyed it. When I arrived at this meeting, Mr. Brian Sheehan was talking about getting more women into politics. Of course, we would all like it if there were more women in politics but, at the end of the day, we put our names on a ballot paper and it is up to the people to decide who they want to represent them for the next five years.

I thank the members for allowing us to attend the meeting.