Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful to be able to speak in this debate. It is very important and it is of great concern to us. I would like to make a point before I start talking about Deputies, which is that while Members of this House might be inclined to think of ourselves, there is a very great group of people I want to talk about when we speak about electoral boundaries, and that is our county councillors. Our county council, which I believe to be one of the finest in the Western world, is Kerry County Council. I speak of all of the councillors we have on Kerry County Council at present, but Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and I are very proud of how Councillor Maura Healy-Rae and Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae are working and they continue to do great work on our local authority.

Our councillors have an awful job of work in regard to the electoral areas they represent. For instance, Councillor Johnny Healy-Rae, my nephew, covers from Cuhig to Lauragh and all around it and then up through Kenmare, back down into Sneem, over into mid-Kerry, back into Dingle and back out to Ventry and Ballyferriter. It is a massive electoral area for any councillor to represent. He is doing it in an excellent fashion, and I am very glad and proud of the way he is doing his work, as I am proud of all of the other people, whoever they are, be they Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin or whoever. Our county councillors do a great job of work. A lot of the time it goes unrecorded and under the radar. They do not get thanked enough for it. They are not looking for thanks but I appreciate the work our councillors are doing.

They are on the go day and night, holding their clinics, serving their constituents and attending electoral area meetings, county council meetings and all the other functions involved.

Everybody knows my feelings about the abolition of the town councils. It was wrong. If it was attempted now instead of then there would be no hope in the world that it would pass. The arrogance of the last Government is gone, thankfully. There is no way that the current Government could do away with the town councils. It would not get away with doing what the last Government did. It was a foolish mistake. It was led by a certain former Member. I do not like naming people, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, and you know that I will not do so, but we all know who it is.

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