Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It borders on the preposterous to be debating local government reform against a background whereby 25% of local authority workers have been axed, a total of 9,000 jobs, and massive cuts have been inflicted on the central fund for local government. Local authorities need resources and front-line staff to provide the services required from them. Everything else is shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic. In recent years, as funding and staffing have been axed, we have seen the creeping manifestation of outsourced or privatised services and, as a result, more charges being loaded on local communities and residents to pay for the services they used to receive in return for the taxes they paid to central government. Local authorities are being forced to ramp up parking charges and they cannot give small businesses a break on rates. They are required to find ways of making money at every hand's turn, whether from local communities, amenities or other areas, and in the process many people are effectively excluded from services for which charges are imposed.

The attempt to deal with the controversial position of county managers, who - let us be honest - are not the most popular people in the world as they stand because they so unaccountable by describing them as CEOs is indicative of the corporatisation of local government. That is the last thing we need. Local government needs to be brought back to the people. We need real civic involvement by the community in policy making and real accountability from public representatives and, particularly, powerful senior officials such as county managers. Local communities should be able to decide the priorities for big capital projects and services.

None of this is included in the Bill.

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