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

I wish to deal with one aspect of this Bill, the situation in Galway. I compliment my colleague, Deputy Cassells, who has done a great deal of work on this. I also welcome the Minister of State's attitude towards the Bill and his good listening abilities. It is important to have a good listener and I hope he will be able to take on board some of the issues we are bringing to his attention.

I do not favour amalgamations of local authorities. The centralisation of everything is not workable, particularly in a small country. I dislike the idea of basing our local authority structure on somewhere in Europe. Ours is one of the smallest areas of Europe and we are going to be different. That is why centralisation is not a good idea. I have a serious issue with part of this Bill and the debate on Galway. There are more than 275,000 people in Galway city and county, and to amalgamate the city and county is the wrong decision. The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and Deputies Fitzmaurice and Ó Cuív are present and they have far greater experience than I have of the situation but I believe we are increasingly taking power away from places such as Galway.

One example is the demise of the town councils. The demise of the town council in Ballinasloe, which has a population of more than 7,000, was a bad decision. There was a popular debate in the House on abolishing all town councils but that was an unwise debate. When one talks to the people in Ballinasloe, from every part of the town, they say that they feel part of their voice has gone and that the local authority is not able to look after everything. Ballinasloe has been badly hit but it is fighting back. It is important that our policy on town councils is implemented and is part of this Bill. The people of Ballinasloe tell me frequently that they want the restoration of a town council because most of the time it has a good and positive function for the town. Given the expanse of Galway city and county and its population, we should not be amalgamating but trying to give back more power. We should keep the county council and the city council and bring back town councils for places such as Ballinasloe. It will give people in the community the voice they need.

When I want something done in the Ballymoe and Castlerea area or in Deputy Fitzmaurice's area - he will get the same answer - I am told that the job cannot be done this year because there is no funding. The starving of funding is a massive issue and is very bad in Galway County Council. There have been issues with funding for a long time, as has been outlined by Deputies Connolly and Grealish. Other Deputies will outline it too. The power of councils has been drastically reduced. Even in the case of roads, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, appears to be getting a great deal of control. It is increasingly eating into an area that was under the control of councils. The same happened with water. With regard to planning, councillors are finding it extremely difficult even to make basic genuine representations on behalf of people. It is hard to make any type of progress. Of course, it is an executive function but it is an extremely difficult area and it is hard to make progress on it. I have serious reservations about the Bill in respect of Galway city and county councils.

I wish to mention something else before I conclude. I accept it is not relevant to the Bill but we had a great debate in the House about Monksland, Athlone, which is part of Roscommon County Council. There was a recommendation that it would be annexed and go into Athlone in County Westmeath. That caused huge annoyance in our county. The Minister of State probably knows that 27,000 people signed a petition. Can he confirm that this is done and dusted, that there will be no more interference there and that Monksland, Athlone, will stay within the County Roscommon boundaries?

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