Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Local Government Bill 2013, which introduces some of the biggest reforms we will see during the term of this Government. The abolition of town councils is a positive development. Rather than being a diminution of local government, as some would suggest, it will empower local government and make it more efficient. Whereas the number of councillors will be reduced by 600 overall, my county, Kildare, will get a significant increase from 25 to 40 councillors due to the increase in our population.

I will draw on my experience of being a member of Kildare County Council and, in particular, a member of the Athy area committee from 2009 until the general election in 2011 because I saw at first hand how inefficient the system was. I was elected to the council with 1,980 votes but, even though the last seat on Athy Town Council was taken with 67 first preference votes, as a member of the area committee I was not allowed to ask any questions regarding planning or housing matters in the Athy Town Council area. Those in Athy who voted for me were not getting good value because power was not divided equally across the councils. It has been suggested that towns like Athy and Newbridge will lose representation but it is clear that the municipal areas of these towns are being expanded into parts of the hinterland that were not previously part of the town council. Residents in Athgarvan and Milltown should be treated no differently to those of Newbridge and the people of Kilkee and Castlemitchell should be treated the same as the residents of Athy. That is what the municipal areas will do. The two urban district councils in the county, Naas and Athy, existed for historic reasons but in moving towards a one county authority we should be mindful of the potential for disparities in the rates that businesses pay in these councils. I understand the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is aware of this issue.

I was a member of the finance committee of Kildare County Council. We held interesting meetings in advance of the annual budgets to discuss the issues arising. I went into my first meeting with excitement at the prospect of influencing the budget only to find out that more than 80% of the budget was non-discretionary. When I asked what areas of expenditure were discretionary, areas like the fire service, which we obviously were not going to cut, were mentioned. This meant we ended up with little influence over the budget. The variation on the local property tax from 2015 onwards, as announced in this Bill, changes that somewhat because we know from the mistakes made in abolishing rates in 1977 that there is an inextricable link between power and money. If a local authority cannot collect rates it does not have the same amount of power. Councillors will be more responsible in exercising that power because if, for example, they decide to reduce the property tax rate they will have to defend the reduction in services, whereas if they increase it they will have to be able to point to greater service provision. That, in turn, will impact on accountability among officials because the local councillor will not be able to blame central government or anybody else for inefficiency.

The strengthening of SPCs is welcome and the local enterprise offices will ensure that resources go directly to local businesses. I commend this Bill to the House as a reforming piece of legislation.

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