Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil broadly supports this primarily technical Bill to enable the redrawing of European Parliament constituencies due to the reduction of Ireland's complement of MEPs from 12 to 11. Fianna Fáil also supports the changes to provisions for postal votes and increased transparency in electoral donations. However, it is opposed to the specific measures to allow the development plans of town councils to continue after the abolition of such town councils. In addition, the party is opposed to the creation of a dual county manager for Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council, which forms part of the preparatory work for what Fianna Fáil considers to be a deeply flawed document from the Minister pertaining to local government reform, Putting People First.

The accession of Croatia as the 28th member state of the European Union and the Lisbon treaty commitment to cap the number of MEPs at 751 means that Ireland and a number of other countries will lose a single MEP each. The total number of Irish MEPs obviously then falls from 12 to 11. This Bill enables the Government to set up a constituency boundary review commission to accommodate these changes, which Fianna Fáil supports as part of the Lisbon treaty changes to the role of the European Parliament. Fianna Fáil is opposed to the section of the Bill that creates a dual manager for Waterford city and county councils. It is opposed to the amalgamation of these authorities, which it considers will damage the strength of representation and leadership in Waterford. It also is opposed to the sections outlining changes to planning law that will accommodate the Government's proposals to abolish town councils in their entirety. Fianna Fáil intends to publish its own radical local government proposals in the coming weeks, which will form the bedrock for its proposals in respect of the forthcoming local elections to be held next year.

The minor amendments to the postal and special voting arrangements are a welcome step towards making voting more accessible for citizens. Fianna Fáil also supports the provisions in the Bill to enhance the transparency of political donations by extending criteria for disclosure to both candidates and political parties. As for the proposals contained within the Putting People First document, I note the Bill prepares the way for the implementation of the Government's centralising power grab outlined in Putting People First. Fianna Fáil is opposed to the Minister's local government plans on a number of grounds. The Putting People First document puts bureaucrats first by transferring power away from public representatives into the hands of officials and by creating a democratic deficit at the heart of Irish politics. There is no vision of a new role for local government that moves away from silo-driven central government thinking. The Putting People First proposals reduce the role of councillors without handing real power to ordinary citizens, thereby making Ireland what I consider to be the most centralised country in the Western world. There are no ideas, such as the establishment of directly elected mayors, to really drive on reform and change in local government. I note that thus far in this or any other document published by the Minister with regard to recommendations, there is a complete failure to implement the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal. The Putting People First proposals support a property tax that will differ from county to county across 31 councils, hitting home owners in some areas much harder than others. As I stated, the proposal creates a democratic deficit at the heart of Irish politics, places more power into the hands of unelected officials and fails dismally to transform how politics is done in Ireland.

Local government is ripe for change in Ireland but the Government has missed its opportunity by opting for spin and rhetoric instead of substance. One has headline-grabbing cuts but the lack of substantive changes to local authority powers is ignored. It constitutes a failure to shift away from the silo thinking and delivery that emanates from centralised government. Having already moved water services from councils before deciding what it wants to do with local authorities, the Government has offered no new vision for the role and functions of local government that would bring it into line with the rest of the democratic world. Moreover, no real detail exists regarding any devolved functions. Promises in the programme for Government for a rebalancing of powers between councillors and officials have been abandoned and section 140 of the Local Government Act 2001 has been removed without giving any real additional powers to councillors. Greater democratic participation is completely ignored by the plan, which transfers powers away from communities and towards the most centralised government in the Western world. The Minister stated previously that a high level of centralisation was unhealthy but the proposals in the document now have made the situation worse. The changes threaten merely to be a reduction for the sake of headline grabbing, rather than thoughtful political reform with real foresight on how our country should be run. The Government must show more imagination in shaping our comparatively weak system of local government.

Instead, power is being centralised in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, and putting people first simply means putting bureaucrats first. There is a real sense of a democratic deficit emerging from these changes.

We have consistently argued that real political reform must be holistic in its approach to the institutions of the State. Ad hochaphazard changes, such as an emasculated Constitutional Convention, abolishing the Seanad, sham Dáil reform and eliminating town councils are not the way towards creating a better system of governance. Instead of reform, the Fine Gael-Labour Government has centralised power in the hands of four key Ministries. It has amalgamated the areas of justice and defence under one Minister, which is unique in the western world. The Government has stated its intention to remove the Seanad as a check on its powers. Ireland is sliding towards a serious democratic deficit and failing to live up to the EU principle of subsidiarity. It is alienating citizens from the process of governance. This flies in the face of the promise made by Fine Gael in its document, New Politics, which was to confront the traditional centralised, top-down approach. It was to restore power to local government and make local governments more relevant to the communities they serve. It stands in direct contradiction to Labour's pre-election promise in its manifesto, namely, to return accountability to elected councillors. In reality, the new chief executive position enhances and maintains an iron grip on councils. It is simply the county manager under a different name.

We broadly support what is primarily a technical Bill enabling European Parliament constituency redrawing. We support the provisions for the changes in regard to postal votes and increasing transparency with regard to electoral donations. I repeat, however, that we are opposed to specific measures that allow development plans of town councils to continue after the abolition of town councils. We oppose the creation of a dual county manager for Waterford city and county councils. These are the first instances of the preparatory work, the first enabling tools in legislation, giving effect to proposals for local government reform in the flawed document known as Putting People First. In response to Second Stage statements, I ask the Minister to inform the House as to when he will bring forward legislation to give effect to the bulk of the detail in Putting People First.

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