Mr. Peter Flynn:

Imagine a local government system that encouraged young people, people from the private sector and people from multiple backgrounds and qualifications and where people knew their politicians. Imagine a system where officials were actually held to account and people knew who they were locally. Imagine a system that was largely self-funding and did not rely on handouts from Departments to maintain councils. Imagine a council that delivered large council estates and a significant number of affordable homes for working people. Imagine a council that dealt with the local chambers of commerce, IDA, Ireland Fáilte Ireland, other agencies, Tidy Towns committees, twinning committees and various community groups. Imagine a system in which councillors were held to account for every single decision they were required to make.

When I was elected to Westport Town Council in 1999, I was in a full-time role as an accountant at a multinational called Allergan. I had no political background. I simply wanted to be a part of the local community. I managed to get 180 votes and was lucky enough to be elected to the town council. In six weeks when I put my name forward, I will require 1,800 votes to get over the line. When I joined Westport Town Council, there were nine councillors serving 5,000 people.

Today, one councillor serves 5,000 people. In 1999 in Westport Town Council, two of the nine members were female. Today, in Mayo County Council, two out of 30 members are female. At the time, the average of members of Westport Town Council was 40 and today it is 60. I state 60 as a "nice" number, because the actual age is significantly higher. At the time, most of the members of the town council were in the private sector, with various backgrounds and qualifications. Today, in Mayo County Council, 20% of members are auctioneers, 20% are farmers, 30% are retirees and just 10% are in the private sector doing what I would call 9 to 5 jobs. At present, as a councillor, I make decisions on important stuff like development plans, section 183s and zoning decisions. I make decision on parts of Mayo that I have no clue about because I do not know the areas. I will never knock on a door there and I will never be held to account for those decisions.

In the days of the town council we had three key people: the town manager, the town clerk and the town engineer. They came to all our key meetings, which were held in the evenings in order for us to manage our day jobs. The three were held to account for every single decision they made and most importantly, they were known to the people of Westport. Since 2001, local government has been destroyed. It was murdered in 2014. At that time, county managers were being described as such. Then the name was changed to "chief executive officers". In my view, they should be called supreme leaders. They have absolute power, with absolutely no accountability. We have created organisations which have lost sight of the role of councils, where now chief executives think they are part of the IDA, or leaders of Fáilte Ireland or Enterprise Ireland. They have lost sight of what they are actually supposed to be doing in terms of delivering the basics for people at local level. We have created organisations where nobody is responsible and nobody is accountable. We have created the worst local government system in Europe. That is not my description but it comes from a report published last year which places Ireland down alongside Moldova and Hungary. We have created the Standards In Public Office Commission, SIPO, and the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR. Tell me a time that SIPO actually found someone guilty of mismanagement of council funds. I certainly cannot tell the committee about any such instance. We now have the OPR and the Department with more power than any single council or any single Minister, where they determine every local government plan.

The single biggest issue in the country at the moment is housing. Going back to Westport Town Council, in the first council I was part of, we delivered 54 affordable homes. Since the town councils were abolished, Mayo County Council has delivered zero affordable homes. With Westport Town Council, in a bad year we would have had compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, of five derelict properties. Since 2014 in Mayo County Council, five derelict properties have been subject to a CPO.

In terms of affordable sites, nothing has happened in the years since Mayo County Council took over. My parents were lucky enough to get an affordable site in 1970 when there was no money. Last year, Westport and the surrounding area was designated as a rental pressure zone, RPZ but nothing more has happened. Rental by Airbnb continues to expand beyond the town boundaries. Local government is dying in front of us. It is broken. Commercial rates are certainly not helping the system and the Town Centre First policy is nothing more than a catchphrase.

In my view, the buck stops in this room. The Senators are the legislators who determined the various local government Acts that have gone through this House since 2001. We cannot blame the British system, because we have transformed it. We cannot blame Europe and we cannot blame the people, because it was not done by way of referendums. It was done by the legislators in this room over the last 20 years. I am asking that the radical choices be made. It is not tinkering at the edges that is required but rather something radical to really change local democracy in Ireland. The Senators have the opportunity to make a real mark. People question the role of the Seanad. If the Senators can transform local government, it will leave a legacy that will be talked about for generations to come.