Mr. Alan Edge:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to members and for the support it provides to us as local councillors in the exercise of our jobs and the limited powers that remain to us. That assistance is greatly appreciated.

Without wanting to pre-empt the report, I really hope it is acted on. I am grateful the committee is taking the time to look into this problem. We are in a crisis of democracy. It is a fundamental crisis. It is affecting every branch of government. The two main facts of the crisis, to which Mr. de Róiste alluded earlier, are accountability and access to decision makers by members of the public. That is why this is a very urgent matter.

Local government in Ireland has fewer powers than any other local government in Europe. The limited suite of powers that remain to us is being eroded all the time. To take a couple of examples that are in the news now, the increasing use of section 38 applications in relation to cycling infrastructure is proving controversial to all of us on the doorsteps, and also an erosion of functions and powers that were always within the remit of councillors. As part of our county development plan, we as councillors voted to limit the number of data centres in the county. We were slapped on the wrist by the Office of the Planning Regulator and told we could not do that. That is a fundamental function of local councillors that has been taken away. In addition, I live in a rural area of a largely urban county. Residents cannot get planning for single-dwelling houses.

We have made attempts in the county development plan to have a more pragmatic approach but we are told we cannot do that until the guidance has come from the Department. When will that guidance come? We have no idea. Until it comes, we are left hamstrung in the middle of a housing crisis. We have people unable to settle in the community that they called home for many years. There are a number of fundamental problems. That is a matter of accountability.

On access to services, councillors are a really important resource that is being squandered. Increasingly, people turn to their local councillor. We are close to the people we represent when they have a problem. In the last week alone, I have been contacted by two people. Both have children who cannot participate in mainstream education. There is an appalling lack of services in the area. Essentially, no assessment of local need has been done in the area. That is an area that councils and councillors are uniquely placed to carry out but instead we have people who are being forced to travel across the whole of Dublin to access these services because no one has taken the time to assess what is needed on the ground.

The disempowerment of local politicians is really in lockstep with the decline we are seeing in engagement with democracy across the board. I am not going to lay the blame on or offer an opinion on cycle lanes but, suffice it to say, if decision-making by local authorities is continuously eroded, people will lose faith in their democracy. As a councillor, I was canvassing the other day. A lady had three fundamental issues she wanted to discuss. Two related to section 38 applications of a very different order and one to a strategic housing development. There was nothing I could say to her. There is a question, if we do not work to restore our democracy, of how we persuade people not to turn to undemocratic actors.

I have a final point on directly elected mayors which I will finish on. If directly elected mayors are going to be in a situation where they are performing the largely symbolic role that we perform, it will be a colossal and expensive waste of time. Apart from that, it is impossible. No single person could perform for greater Dublin the role that we four provide.