Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a very rare occurrence in politics that people will admit they got something wrong. Most seem to follow Napoleon's advice never to retreat, never retract and never admit a mistake. The Fine Gael and Labour Party Government most certainly got it wrong when it abolished town councils, doing so without any public consultation to add insult to injury. At least in this instance the Labour Party has recognised how ill-judged that decision was and is now advocating the restoration of our town councils. The decision at that time showed a complete lack of understanding of how local communities function. It prioritised the saving of a paltry amount of money over the empowerment of local communities. Our 2017 Bill, proposed by my colleague, Deputy Cassells, sought to right that wrong. The Bill before us clearly resembles that Fianna Fáil Bill.

The democratic deficit created in 2014 must be repressed to allow all of our constituents better access to the political process. Our towns absolutely need good local governance structures to deliver quicker and more efficient services. I got my first bite of the political cherry in Newbridge Town Council when the good people of Newbridge saw fit to elect me to represent them at that level. I saw at first hand the incredible unpaid efforts of community groups, such as tidy towns, community games groups and many others, working to help one another. I was privileged during that time to see so many dedicated people carrying out work to deliver new, exciting and innovative projects, activities and initiatives throughout our town.

The point of the Maastricht treaty, which Europe adopted 26 years ago in 1992, was the principle of subsidiarity, whereby people would make decisions as closely as possible to the citizens on the ground. This has taken us completely away from that. We must absolutely restore town councils. We must restore confidence in our structures. We must restore local democracy and bring back real power to the people.

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