Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. We inherited a local government system from the British which is, in some ways good, in that there are positive things in it. However, time changes everything and it is progressive that this Minister and his Department have examined the whole nature of local authority and how it operates in this jurisdiction. A wide variety of issues have been highlighted in this comprehensive Bill, which deserve to be scrutinised. When time passes, there is no reason not to change things which do not work properly or belong to another age. That is a good thing, which I support, and I compliment the Minister and his staff.

Some Members were concerned about the reduction in the number of councillors. Given that I am on record during the Seanad referendum campaign as saying there are too many politicians, I have to be consistent, so that remains my position. I was a councillor for 12 years and would say there were too many councillors. I refer to the volume of time wasted on council business. There were 30 or more members present at some meetings with all saying the same thing, although maybe with slight variations, and dealing with matters which could have been dealt with in ten minutes. I witnessed this for 12 years and always thought it was the most backward system which should be scrutinised in terms of its efficiency, so I welcome this provision.

As politicians - I include councillors - we sometimes work against ourselves. From my time as a member of South Dublin County Council, which is the second largest local authority in the country, councillors would always refer to their workload, etc., but I think we should be honest with each other and admit that being a councillor, whether a city councillor or a county councillor, is not a full-time job. Trying to delude ourselves and mislead the public by saying it is a full-time job, that it takes up all of one's time and that one cannot watch "Love/Hate" on the television because one is a full-time councillor is rubbish. One can push the work into a few days. I worked full-time during the 12 years I was a councillor. I had a real job, as I always liked to say, and one squeezes in the other work. I am sure the Members present did the same. We should be honest when dealing with the public and say that being a member of a local authority is not a full-time job. It would be helpful if we did that.

I refer to one of the pitfalls of our political system, which we inherited, although we did not take all of it on board. I am sure the other Members present are no different from me but 80%, if not more, of one's time is taken up with council business which is so unlike any other parliament. I have only been a Member for a short time but for years I have never agreed with the proportional representation system. I agree with the British system of single seat constituencies. We should have more constituencies and fewer politicians. If we had single seat constituencies, we would focus on legislation, changing law and improving society. We should not be spending 80% of our time worrying about planting trees, autumn leaves, footpaths and so on. I do not think that is what the electorate intends us to do when they vote for a government.

This is a comprehensive Bill. There is so much in it that one would be here for half of the day if one was to comment on all of the sections. I refer to sections 50 to 65, inclusive, to which my colleague, Deputy Seán Kenny referred, on the plebiscite for the four Dublin local authorities which will take place during the local elections in May. In principle, I have no objection to that and it will be interesting to see the outcome. However, I have heard other Members complain and protest about the abolition of some local authorities, etc. The town in which I live has no problem with councils being abolished because it never had one, despite the fact it is the third largest population centre with 100,000 people living in it. I refer to Tallaght. Not only does it have a greater population than Galway, Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick cities but in some cases it is twice that of some of the other cities.

As I have said, when I was a member of South Dublin County Council in 2003, it adopted a motion seeking city status for Tallaght as the third largest centre of population in the State. The council's policy is that Tallaght should be recognised as a city because that is what it is, in effect. Not only does it have a large population, but it also functions as a city in every way except in name. It has the educational and sporting facilities, such as Institute of Technology, Tallaght, which one would associate with a city. It has a chamber of commerce. It has never been granted city status, however.

It is worth mentioning that historically, there are no Irish cities. I include Dublin in that. In all five cases, they exist as cities because the Vikings decided so, or because they were granted city status by the British monarchy. There is no such thing as an Irish city. When I discussed the question of city status for Tallaght with the Minister, Deputy Hogan, I informed him that we made no progress in this regard when we approached the Ministers who were responsible for local government in previous Administrations. I suggested to him that he would be the first Irish citizen ever to grant city status to any large town in this jurisdiction. As I have indicated, our current cities achieved that status by virtue of the generosity of Victoria and Charles I.

The reality is that Tallaght is a very large urban centre. While I sympathise with those whose local town councils are being abolished under this Bill, I remind them that Tallaght has never had a town or city council. We want to have one. If a plebiscite takes place on foot of this Bill - I have no doubt it will - where will it leave the third largest centre of population in this State? Where will it leave the existing policy of South Dublin County Council as the second largest local authority in this country, which is that Tallaght should be granted city status? Regardless of the outcome of the plebiscite, it is not just a simple matter of the Minister making a decision on the basis of population size. Other factors, some of which I have outlined, also need to be considered. I reiterate to the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, and particularly to the Minister, Deputy Hogan, that this is the policy of the local authority. We want that to be considered in the period after the plebiscite, if not before.

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