Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister. On the proposals on local government reform, to which he alluded in his reply, he said he will bring forward his proposals on town councils. In my county, Limerick, Limerick City Council and County Council will merge into a single entity. We have to be very careful not to dilute democracy and local government representation completely. The combined number of local representatives on both the authorities is 45 and the figure being mooted is between 32 and 34. The matter will have to be thrashed out.

If one is going to pursue a policy of retaining town and borough councils, which has merit because it is local democracy, one has to bear in mind that local public representatives cost a relatively insignificant amount of money in the overall scheme of local government. While we are trying to achieve savings by merging entities, the majority of costs do not involve local public representatives.

We need to get the balance right in terms of not diluting local democracy completely. It would not make sense to have a 32 member single authority in Limerick and retain seven town councils in a neighbouring county such as Tipperary. Such a situation would not be equitable.

I ask the Minister to enlighten us as to whether he intends to proceed with directly elected mayor in Limerick. He listed his agenda for other areas of political reform. I understand changing the voting age is in the programme for Government. What is the position on the proposal to abolish the Seanad?

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