Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not desirable to do things in this way. Things have been so hectic this week that preparation for this debate has been difficult.

In setting out a reform agenda, much depends on what question is posed. I tend to ask what we do well as a country. I am more than a little concerned, however, that the question being asked about the reform of our political institutions is how we can save money. I think that is where these amalgamations are coming from, which is a pity.

In our own areas we can all see the wonderful community and voluntary work that is undertaken locally. I am afraid, however, that we will miss a real opportunity to rebuild or redevelop our uniquely Irish local government system. I was a councillor in a town that was established in the lifetime of the State. There were only four such towns, three in the 1980s and Tramore in 1948. I realise that is not the subject of today's Bill but one could see the opportunity that presented. It mattered in the community where I lived and had a vested interest in developing.

The county has become the pre-eminent location for local government, yet the county is not uniquely Irish. The county system was developed between the 12th and 17th centuries and was used as a means of control by the crown. That means of control has been retained as the culture that dominates our local government system. It may no longer be the crown, but the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government still exercises that system of control. As a people, we do not like being controlled; we do our best when there is a certain element of liberty. I realise that there must be control measures within any political system, but positioning the county at the centre of local government is wrong. There is good evidence that that system is not what people identify with.

A study was undertaken by the New Urban Living project at the Department of Sociology in NUI Maynooth. The researchers found that four things created an attachment to places: the built and natural environment, the cultural character and life of an area, the quality of informal associational life, and the elective belonging. These were the reasons people had chosen to live in a particular area. The study found evidence of a strong attachment by residents to their town and locality. That also applied even those who had moved from outside, which is very much the profile of North Kildare. On All-Ireland final day, people certainly do feel attached to their county, but it is a very different vehicle from a manageable location for building communities.

As part of a UK study, Sir Michael Lyons examined how local government should be reformed there. He surprised himself with some of his findings. He said the function of local government should be about place-shaping and the creative use of power and influence to promote the general well-being of a community and its citizens. We should start by talking about that and looking at the smaller level of place-shaping. One must shape that place where people feel a sense of identity and function well. That is where an opportunity is being missed in terms of the reform programme here.

One of the great examples of what works well at community and voluntary level is the GAA which is based fundamentally on the parish or community. Competition may well culminate in September with a focus on the county, but the main platform for the association is at community level. It is the same with the credit union movement and TidyTowns associations. These institutions are incredibly important to discerning what is uniquely Irish and on what we can build our local government system rather than continue to remodel an inherited system which does not play to our strengths. We must develop a local government system which is cost-efficient and effective. It is people's money that is being spent. I am certainly not talking about being wasteful.

The other side to this is what one gets in return and how one builds communities. My practical experience of working at town and county level is that the play-shaping role was more effective at town level. As I say whenever I get the opportunity, a district council model, independent of the county council system, is what we should develop. Some town councils have been too small in the past and there has been resistance to reform. There has been a need for a very long time to reform institutions. However, there are great opportunities also. We need three large regional authorities. Barcelona is an example of how city regions deliver strong economic returns. To amalgamate the County Waterford and Waterford city local authorities is not to create a regional authority. We have regional authorities which are not elected and which most people do not know exist. Sometimes, they perform very useful functions. In particular, the planning function exercised on the east coast has been valuable. Now that spatial plans at county level are consistent with regional plans, a culture which needed to change has changed. We can identify some of our economic failures at that level where we saw an out-of-control, informal approach to rezoning land. It is something that bothered me for a long time.

I do not see the Bill providing for the kind of reform that builds on our strengths. We have an opportunity to build a dynamic new infrastructure which could change behaviour. My experience on Leixlip Town Council which was established in a modern context in 1988 was that it was in many ways very efficient. It was aimed very much at facilitating community development because the community identified with it. It was of the community, which is a consideration we are missing in the proposed amalgamations. We are missing a unique opportunity, which I regret. I hope I am wrong, but the Bill should be opposed from that point of view.

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