Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I genuinely believe that people elected to town councils get precious little out of it, other than abuse. They work really hard and they have ideas. I served for many years on Wexford Borough Council. I also served on Wexford County Council. I can say with clear conscience that far more constructive work was done at Wexford Borough Council than at Wexford County Council. Perhaps because of the scale of Wexford County Council, not everybody was interested in every issue but on the borough council everybody was interested in every issue and it was of great moment. An awful lot of time was wasted all well. I recall that one rates process took ten meetings even though we were dealing with relatively small sums of money. People were passionate about their roles and the issues and the wider public knew it. The public was aware that their councillors often met until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. arguing for their issues, such as whether £20,000 should be allocated for a local playground. It was about small money but really important decisions for people. I regret that we no longer have such a system and I would like to put that right.

I have taken note of what everybody said. What I found most damning about Deputy Munster's contribution is that she clearly had not read the Bill. One expects that people would know what they are talking about, even if fairly general terms, before they make a critique. Deputy Munster was obviously motivated by whatever is going on in her own constituency. Perhaps because Senator Ged Nash is championing this and has traction on it, because he is right on it, the Deputy feels she has to put her oar in. If her general thesis is that it is fundamentally wrong to change one's mind, Sinn Féin is in a sorry state. I welcome people changing their minds. I welcome people admitting they did not get something right, that they made a mistake or that they could have done something better. If we could all do that, our democracy would be an awful lot better and an awful lot healthier.

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