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

Given that we are discussing the Local Government Bill, which proposes the amalgamation of various councils, including Waterford City Council, I wish to mention Councillor Gary Wyse who, unfortunately, passed away suddenly earlier today. I wish to pass on my condolences to his wife and family on this sad occasion.

The Local Government Bill 2013, as put before the House, represents a real and major threat to the fabric of local democracy. It falls into the growing category of spin-obsessed politics by a Government that trades short-term headlines for long-term institutional damage. The same type of slash and burn attitude that underpinned the constitutional crusade of the defeated Seanad referendum has driven this legislation. Instead of thoughtful reform, all we have witnessed from this Government is an axeman's approach to the democratic institutions of the State. The end result will be the single most centralised state in the democratic world.

The abolition of town councils, the slashing of councillor numbers, the continued emasculation of local authorities' powers and the half-hearted gesture towards directly elected mayors represent a missed opportunity for real change in one of the most neglected areas of Irish politics. If we are willing to change how politics works in this country, we need to start from the bottom up. Local government is the tier of the State that is closest to the citizen but Ireland has one of the weakest systems of local government in the western world, second only to the UK.

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