Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot hear him but I know he is echoing my views.

It is serious and if that were to happen I would have done my job as a Deputy for my area. I believe the Minister of State is fully aware and alert to the issue.

The restoration of local power is important and I welcome the changes the Minister of State is making. I was a member of a council for 27 years or more. The difficulty arises when councillors may not wish to make an unpopular decision. Deputy Kelleher was a Minister for State and he knows at first hand the problems in making unpopular decisions. If we leave them to officials, for example, the councillor can avoid it and blame the officials but that is not good enough in today's local democracy. I know the Minister of State intends to give additional powers to the directly elected chairperson or mayor of councils, which would include the city of Drogheda. That person would have to be accountable and would have the powers but would have to be accessible and available. That is a fair deal for democracy because there is local control and administration and there is direction to the officials on what should be happening. If the mayor does not do his or her job, he or she goes. That is the way it should be.

The climate we live in now is better than when the former Minister who happened to be from County Kilkenny abolished many of the councils. That was the wrong decision.

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