John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will refer to Cork briefly to begin. An amendment was agreed to, which I tabled, to ensure that the financial review period is extended to ten years, specifically with a view to ensuring the situation with Cork County Council. I have no role in boundaries, through fields or otherwise, but I agree with the Deputy. I have always supported geographic boundaries being boundaries, whether it is a drain, river, or a motorway or road in the modern context. However, the line was drawn and in some places it goes through fields. It is there now and it is not my responsibility.

The question of services is a matter for the implementation group. One thing that has been highlighted is the number of functions fulfilled by local authorities which are often unheralded. The Deputy referred to 400 services. It is envisaged that they will transfer on or around the same time.

On Galway, I assure Deputy Connolly that the Government does support the amendment and I do not expect it will be necessary to divide the House on the matter. The Deputy can email me the report to which she referred at the Oireachtas email address which I still have, johnpaul.phelan@oireachtas.ie. I will be more than happy to read it.

Deputy Ó Cuív referred to the original report on the merger in Galway being proposed by some experts. The difference between Galway and Cork is that there was a split in the latter case and a minority report was produced on Cork. Three people had favoured merger in Cork and two were against, and a second investigation was undertaken. However, there was unanimous agreement about Galway. It was a unanimous agreement that involved the chief executives of both city and county councils as well as the experts, although I would say that the chief executives are also experts, even if we live in a time when being an expert is supposed to be a bad thing.

Municipal districts have an extensive list of functions currently, but the situation is haphazard. Deputy Ó Cuív is right in his assertion that some local authorities are better at performing some functions than others. I have found that some local authorities have a strong municipal district structure, with the districts being where most of the nitty-gritty work of local authorities is done, be it roads, footpaths or lights. Some do not have that structure, though, with decisions rehashed or debated again at the councils' plenary sessions. That is one of the reasons the additional money that I was hoping to give to Galway County Council was targeted specifically at establishing a stronger municipal district structure. Some local authorities - I will provide Deputy Ó Cuív with the details after this debate - have a strong structure in place, with local decisions being made locally.

I do not want the Deputy to be under any illusion that there are no powers currently. We have a problem in some of the local authorities across the country, in that there are elected members of all parties and none who do not want powers. When I met councillors' representative groups a month or so after being appointed to this position, neither could list a single additional power that a local councillor should get. While I do not believe that to be representative of every councillor, it is an issue that has never been addressed.

Several Deputies discussed the merger proposal. As I stated on Second Stage in this House and in the Seanad, the primary driver was never efficiency. Efficiency would be expected in a new single organisation where two now exist. Rather, the primary driver was to see the capital of the west coast, as it were, with a unitary authority that was able to cover the unique features of Galway that have been referenced by, among others, Deputy Fitzmaurice. He mentioned how the location of Galway city was unusual, in that Galway Bay was on one side and Lough Corrib was on the other. Lough Corrib and the bay produce a city that is almost a figure of eight in terms of its spread into the rural hinterland. That figure will change and grow over the course of the city's development.

I wish to reassure the House on the issue of funding for the Galway local authorities. I have a very small amount of discretionary funding, and I propose to put half of that into Galway County Council over the next four years. My door is still open for the council to come forward with local government reforms. The discretionary funding is based solely on proposals for such reforms, so I cannot just give it to a local authority. If the local authorities in Galway have such proposals, the funding that was committed to prior to the Bill being changed can be delivered. However, it cannot legally be delivered if there is no reform proposal.

The status of the mayor of Galway is a matter for the Galway merger Bill. It is still Government policy that that Bill will be pursued in the second half of this year. Obviously, the first half will be largely curtailed by Brexit legislation. The merger Bill is still being drafted and remains a priority for me after the commercial rates Bill, which is the next legislation to cross my desk.

There is some confusion about the position of directly elected mayors. In Limerick and Waterford, people in the city and county will vote. I want to see a directly elected mayor or chairperson of the county councils in Leitrim, Kilkenny, Wexford and every county. Deputy Fitzmaurice is right, in that there should be no-----

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