Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important debate. The "Putting People First - Action Programme for Effective Local Government" was published in October 2012 by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It sets out a wide range of actions, to deliver reform across key areas of local government in order to address weaknesses, to enhance effectiveness and accountability, and to improve performance across the entire system. This Bill gives legislative effect to those proposals.

Reform of local government is a difficult, complex issue and there is no shortage of opinion on how it should be tackled. The current Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government must be congratulated on bringing this and other reforming pieces of legislation before the House.

This Bill represents an important step towards a more streamlined and sustainable model of local government. The most significant change arising from the Bill is the reduction in the number of councillors from 1,627 to 949.

I want to acknowledge the work over many year of town councillors and town councils on behalf of their areas and constituents. Like many in this House, I have been made aware in no uncertain terms of their displeasure with the Bill. However, this legislation ensures and delivers a more coherent and involved system for any geographical area with the new municipal districts being fully representative of the population.

For many years, the business community has shouldered responsibility for funding local services through the rates system. Concern has been expressed about the differential between the rate of the old town council and that of the corresponding county council. I am pleased that, in drafting the Bill, this concern has been explicitly addressed with a standardised commercial rate across each county to be introduced over ten years.

I have received a number of representations on the Bill's provision to introduce a 50% rate on unused commercial buildings. I ask the Minister to change this provision, as such a measure would place a huge financial burden on business people at a time when they are stretched to the limit. Business people have informed me that this provision will lead to commercial buildings being knocked to the ground or their roofs being removed. Some have said they would hand back the keys of their buildings to the county managers. I, therefore, ask the Minister either to remove this element of the Bill or to come up with another option to exempt unused commercial buildings from the rates system.

In essence, the Bill deals with local authority functions, structures, funding, performance and governance. As regards functions and structures, I am pleased that future appointments to the office of county manager - henceforth to be known as the chief executive - will be subject to the positive approval of elected members.

The Bill spells out in detail all 160 functions that are reserved by law to elected members. They are now explicit and form a cornerstone of the legislative framework in how our councils will work, which is to be welcomed. If we are to have effective local government we need a rebalancing of the relationship between councillors and the executive.

This Bill provides for the realignment of local development companies which administer the Leader programme in the local government system. This specific issue should be teased out more substantially on Committee Stage. The Leader programme and its administrative bodies have, in the main, served rural Ireland well in the past 25 years. I would not like their experience and abilities to be lost or subsumed. Even though times are now vastly different, it must be remembered that these groups emerged from the voluntary sector and in many instances this ethos is still strong in their board structure.

The issue of fiscal power and funding in local government is an old chestnut about which councillors have complained since the abolition of rates in 1977. With the discretion from 2015 to vary the rate of local property tax, elected members will have more say in how the affairs of their counties are run. This can be only regarded as a significant improvement or enhancement of local government.

The adage "follow the money" in seeking an answer will now mean that in the mid-west region one will travel to Ennis, Limerick or Nenagh, rather than to the Custom House in Dublin. The Bill fundamentally changes for the better the relationship between people and their local government. I welcome the Bill as a major reform measure which will enhance the local government system and determine how it operates throughout this century.

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