Mr. Seán Dorgan:

I mentioned the town councils issue in my opening statement. I do not think it matters what we call them. Going back ten years, the decision was made to abolish town councils. Taking Dr. Quinn's point, the system is not perfect and there are swathes of towns which had no representation while others were over-represented by the model.

What we have observed over the last ten years is that municipal districts are undoubtedly working in a lot of areas but Ireland has changed. It has become increasingly urban and nearly two thirds of our population now describe themselves as living in an urban centre. In the current system of national and local government, there are towns that are being left behind and do not have effective representation. There is a real opportunity in the committee's report to reimagine local government and how, in a modern Ireland, our local government infrastructure should look and work. I am not talking about changing the existing system because I think that works really well. However, in a lot of urban centres around Ireland, which we all want to be thriving, successful, prosperous places, there is an opportunity to have another layer of effective local democracy trying to champion and improve their place and ensuring their place is prioritised. In the last ten years, the lack of that in the new model was an unintended consequence but I think it is probably an area that would benefit. That is a real opportunity for the report because it is in everyone's interest that towns and urban centres have a thriving layer of local democracy, as mentioned by Senator O'Reilly and Senator Wall. Councillor Malone mentioned borough councils and I should have included those when I was talking about town councils.

I was always struck, when talking to our councillors, that they would often say their powers were diminishing. This may be a trite, small point to make but it is probably illustrative of where some councils are at. When you go on the websites of some councils, you would be there a long time trying to find out who the elected members are. That tells its own story.