Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

When I was a Minister of State and somebody asked me before an Irish Presidency Competitiveness Council meeting whether I was nervous going into such a big room with all those European Union Ministers from the 27 members states, I had to say that if a person had ever chaired a meeting of Mallow Town Council then he or she could chair a meeting of any forum anywhere in the world. I am proud of the fact that I started there, as did my late father in 1967. In government, we become part of a collective agreement and I was part of the decision that collectively agreed to abolish town councils. I am glad that we as a party have taken a decision to seek to rescind that decision. It was a grievous error and I acknowledge fully that I was part of that decision. I support the legislation that we have put forward so that we can create again the front-line for representative democracy, that is, through our municipal or district councils. People will argue that local authorities such as Cork County Council have the municipal districts.

In my experience, since their creation, people have been a little removed from the decision-making mechanisms. The resources of the local authorities have become more stretched in the allocation of engineers, housing staff and outdoor staff and they are covering a larger geographic area. If we decide to implement this legislation as a Legislature and reinstate town councils, what we will put back into them is the core competency of staff who always looked after these towns. Since the abolition of town councils, I have noticed a diminution of services in towns. I am sure many Members find themselves doing council-related work more often. We are all happy to do that because all politics is local and we will help everybody at every turn of the road, no matter how high up the food chain we go politically. I believe though that having a coterie of town councillors again representing districts and towns would be another service. It would mean a return to basics and to core principles in representative democracy and the people would welcome that.

No matter what town a person comes from, when he or she walks down the main street as a public representative - whether as a councillor, a Deputy or a Minister - there will always be somebody on a Friday or Saturday afternoon that will ask why we abolished the town councils. I am hard-pressed to give an answer. This legislation seeks to address that. People liked the idea that they had a local person they could go to who would represent their interests and advocate for the bread and butter issues that affect them. I refer to getting the bread and butter issues or the simple things right because sometimes it is the simple things that exercise people. The town council gave everybody access on those bread and butter issues. There is now a sense of remoteness. Citizens in towns do not feel that connectedness through the relationships in the municipal districts. That is something that this legislation would address.

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