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

Maybe Roscommon as well. A directly elected mayor is what is envisaged in the plebiscite legislation. Cork city is a separate local authority. It is the directly elected mayors of the single authorities in question that people will be asked about in May. That question has been removed in the Galway context, but that is the legitimate decision of the Seanad, which I am sure will be agreed to by the Dáil.

Deputy Eugene Murphy spoke about the restoration of Ballinasloe Town Council. My problem with town councils is that they allowed certain privileged citizens two ballot papers in a local election whereas the rest of us had to survive with one. Regardless of where a town is located, it cannot be viewed in isolation. That is why I will this year produce legislation on urban area committees relating to towns that cross county boundaries. It is convenient if towns' hinterlands are located in the one local authority area, but Ballinasloe is on a boundary and the old town council structure took no account of its natural hinterland. If one happened to live in an area that had become developed but was not inside the town boundary, one would not get a vote in the town council election. No democrat could stand over the situation of two ballot papers, which is why I intend to reinforce the municipal district structure further.

Among other Deputies, the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, referred to the funding gap that had emerged. Galway County Council is not the furthest away from the average funding received by the country's 31 local authorities. A piece of work on the local property tax has largely been completed by my Department's local government section but has not been completed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The model that existed, with more than 100 different variables in the distribution of the Local Government Fund, LGF, was too complicated and outdated. The new allocation model has not been finalised yet, but I intend to ask the Government to introduce a new model that is based on five variables, one of which will be the distance a particular local authority is from the average funding. Over time, it will bridge the funding gap for all of the underfunded and less funded local authorities across the country, not just Galway. It is important that we have clarity and a decision from the Government on the new LGF allocation model before the Galway merger legislation is before the House.

Several Galway Members have raised the issue of the appointment of a joint chief executive. This is exactly the same measure that was included for Limerick, Waterford and Tipperary. I urge Members with colleagues and friends who represent those counties to ask them what influence the mergers had. They were resisted at the time, but the feedback from Limerick and Waterford is positive. Tipperary was different, as it did not involve the merger of a city council and county council. Rather, it involved two separate counties in local government terms being merged into one. Deputy Ó Cuív's point about a process of analysing what has happened is a fair one. I will endeavour to have such work done.

Deputy Fitzmaurice discussed roads funding and other matters, some of which are outside my control. If Galway County Council has a proposal for strengthening its municipal districts, the discretionary fund is still available. It has not been allocated. I would be more than favourable towards providing it, but I will not draw up the proposals for the council.

I disagree with something else that the Deputy said.

The Deputy was talking about Cork. Nobody wanted to hold up Cork. There are a good number of Members who are not present who wanted to hold up the expansion of Cork - not Deputy Fitzmaurice nor any of the other Members present. On both Second Stage and Committee Stage, there were several Members in the House who were opposed, but legitimately. It is legitimate to oppose something. We live in an age where everyone is expected to agree about everything but it is a legitimate tactic, both parliamentary and otherwise, not to agree on particular issues.

I think I have addressed most of the questions. The Government is accepting these three amendments. It will be returning with a Bill on the Galway merger in the second half of the year. I am more than open to Galway County Council or Galway City Council looking for discretionary funding for necessary reforms of local government that would allow access to that reform fund but also would ensure that the funding situation, particularly in the county, would be improved in the short term. There is a longer-term funding solution, which I hope can be agreed in the not-too-distant future.

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