Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If it did, it would not have brought this one in. That is my point.

Nevertheless, I acknowledge the admission that an error was made at the time. I pay tribute to Deputy Shane Cassells, who has a very strong campaign ongoing on this. I will upset the Minister of State, Deputy John Paul Phelan, when I say that his former colleague, Phil Hogan, made an outrageous error of judgment when Minister in what he did to local authorities and town councils. It has been stated here time and again that many of the urban councils were the strong voice of the people. I take the town of Ballinasloe in my constituency as an example. There is no doubt that the town of Ballinasloe with a population of 7,000 has suffered significantly because of the loss of that town council. That is why we will not look at this figure of starting to put back town councils where there is a population of 10,000. That must come down to 6,000 or 6,500 to take in towns like Ballinasloe.

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