Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I suppose the Ireland Canada Business Association will be presented with a view of Ireland which sounds remarkably less corrupt than the view portrayed by Deputy Ring. Listening to him, while one might question why there has been such little change in recent years, it is hard to disagree with him. I do not mean corruption as regards people taking money that they are not entitled to but corruption in the use of power, in particular, in stymying the will of people as expressed through their freely elected representatives, because the two most powerful people in this Chamber undoubtedly are the two people to the Minister of State's right. I do not wish to bring too much attention to them. They are civil servants doing their job. There is a woman who was a very dedicated public representative. I will name her; it is not a bad thing to say. Ms Patricia McCarthy was mayor of Clare for a long time and a long-standing public representative. I have had many discussions with Ms McCarthy of late and she consistently asks who would want to be an elected representative now and that if one wants power in Ireland, one should join the Civil Service because that is where power resides. There was a meeting on Monday of Clare County Council about this, proposed by another very long-standing county councillor, Councillor P.J. Kelly. He was elected before I was born, and his political career will probably last a lot longer than mine. Councillor Kelly was very critical of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. This will not come as news to him. I refer to the manner in which the Clare county development plan was amended by an order or a direction that the Minister of State gave at the behest or, at the very least, suggestion of an entirely unelected office, the Office of the Planning Regulator. The only legitimacy that our development plans have is that they are proposed and adopted by the representatives of the people of Clare in the case of the Clare county development plan, Limerick in the case of the Limerick one, Donegal or wherever, but if they do not even have that legitimacy, they completely lack any sort of legitimacy. We wonder why is there such disregard for planning and development, historically and culturally, in Ireland but if there is no sense of public ownership, public buy-in and public ability to determine what the development plan is, of course, people will not buy into it.

There is a lot of resentment. There is a lot of resentment in communities in County Clare, like Carrigaholt, Doolin and Spanish Point, which are doing a wonderful job of developing their areas, notwithstanding any lack of support from central or local government. However, there was no proposal to put in place a sewer system. There is nowhere they can go to even lobby for that. I can raise it in the Dáil or I can raise any matter to do with Irish Water and I will be put on to a helpline and speak to "Bob." I might as well ring Eir, which, if you ring its helpline as a customer, is remarkably unhelpful. Ringing Irish Water is the same thing. There are people across County Clare who think I can get answers for them. I cannot. The county councillors they elected cannot get answers but they tell them to speak to Deputies because they will be able to get answers. They cannot get answers either because we have taken that beyond local government and there is no accountability for it. They are not accountable to anybody.

We got rid of the health boards. There is very little power - and diminishing amounts of power - residing in elected representatives. That has a cost and the price of that is an erosion of respect for democracy. You then see reactionary forces getting elected and people sit back and wonder how and why that happened. It happens when you strip elected representatives of their powers. I have to say I agree with Deputy Ring and how he portrayed this cosy club of senior management in local authorities and how they manage to sit on one another's boards and get elected. Ultimately, they are the representatives of the Department of Local Government, Housing and Heritage in the Custom House. The Department of Local Government, Housing and Heritage does not rock the boat. Ministers go in there and do not rock the boat, because if they do they get nothing at all done as opposed to getting a little done and getting out of there without too much damage. That is how Ireland now works. There is a jadedness and almost a sense of betrayal of democracy and it is a dangerous thing.

I will turn specifically to this Bill. I welcome the creation of a directly directed mayor. I think that all mayors across local government, whether directly or indirectly elected, should have executive powers. However, even this mayor who will be directly elected and will have a mandate has very few executive powers. Section 10 sets out and refers to Schedule 1, Parts 1 and 2. Part 1 refers to a couple of sections of the Local Government Act 2001, with regard to the largely ceremonial powers this new directly elected mayor will have. Part 2 refers to all the powers under the Housing Acts 1966 and 1988, the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts 1979, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2009 and 2014, the Planning and Development Act 2000, the Local Government Act 2001, the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, the County Enterprise Boards (Dissolution) Act 2014 and the Affordable Housing Act 2021. Why do people elect representatives to local government? It is to deal with issues that matter to them. What is the big local government issue of the day? It is housing. What powers will the new directly elected mayor of the people of Limerick have to address the housing needs of Limerick? Diddly squat. None. The mayor will have the powers of a councillor but will have no executive powers.

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