Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this Bill. When the previous Government decided to abolish town councils, people on this side of the House who opposed the legislation providing for their abolition made the point that it was a regressive step. It is good to hear that the Labour Party has realised the error of its ways. Deputy Howlin has outlined that his party now recognises that it was a mistake to support the 2014 reforms. It should not have happened. It seems from much of what the Labour Party is now saying that it regrets many of the things it did when it was in government. It is now proposing measures that it opposed when it was in power. Certain things that were deemed to be unnecessary then seem to be necessary now. The removal of the town councils was certainly a regressive step. Anything that strengthens democracy and brings it down to a more local level has to be welcomed. I commend Deputy Cassells on the introduction of this Bill because it will bring us in the direction we should be going.

It is more than likely that Ireland has the most undeveloped form of local government of any progressive or modern democracy anywhere in the world. France has a unit of local government for every 1,500 people. The reforms introduced by the last Government were supposed to bring more democracy to local people. We did away with units of elected responsibility and brought such powers up to council level to the extent that Donegal County Council now has 37 members but does not have a chamber capable of facilitating all of them. If this continues, the council will have to spend money on renovating the county house to accommodate its members.

I do not think the 2014 reforms, which involved growing the county level and getting rid of the lower levels, have been to the advantage of local democracy or local delivery. I suggest we should be looking at going an awful lot further than merely restoring town councils. I believe we should consider having elected councillors at parish level in every parish in the country. It is only by taking such steps that we will be able to start delivering real local democracy. I think it should be possible to achieve such units of local government in a modern developed democracy.

The underlying point in all the contributions we have heard here tonight is that our local authorities are not properly resourced. They have very few ways of raising funds locally. This was particularly true during the recession. When the property tax was given to local authorities, it was supposed to provide funding at a local level. It is probable that for every €1 of fund-raising power that was given to local authorities, €10 was taken back into central government under the auspices of austerity to ensure budgets could be reduced at a national level. I do not think that did anything to further the delivery of local democracy and local government.

I have travelled through towns around the country that used to have urban district councils. I accept that town commissioners were probably a waste of time. Councillors in vibrant towns like Westport that were in control of their own development were able to work together to develop those towns. Such towns seem to be doing much better than towns that were outside the urban district structure and were relying solely on funding at county council level. It is probable that there are examples around the country of towns that did not develop even though they had urban district councils. This is something that could be looked at as well.

We need to get back to this level of local democracy. It has been suggested here that towns with a population of 5,000 or more should have their own local authority. We should be going an awful lot deeper and lower than that. We should go down to parish level, depending on the size of the parish. Smaller parishes could have an elected mayor who makes an input into local administration. There should be different levels and tiers of local government depending on the size and population of each area.

That could be really progressive. It could change democracy and how things are delivered on the ground but for that to happen there has to be a recognition at national level that something has to be given up and that the strings have to be loosened. Control has to be given to those democratically elected bodies because there is no point in setting up urban councils, or setting up town councils again, without them having real control, revenue raising powers and the ability to decide on where funding is spent. The central Government will have to give up some control. There has to be a broad look at the issue, not just of establishing the councils but of the funding mechanisms as well. Overall, I support the Bill, which is worthwhile.

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