Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

Any national planning framework will be a failure unless it is underpinned by real and serious consultation with communities and community representatives at local level in a bottom-up approach. Communities must have the opportunity to make representations to statutory, elected democratic bodies to ensure their voices are heard. The only way this will be achieved is by re-establishing local democracy in our towns, large and small, for instance, the re-establishment of borough corporations and town councils. Local democracy was abolished in 2014 by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government at the stroke of a pen. It has seriously damaged our towns and their economic and social development.

The corporation for Clonmel borough, one of the five boroughs in the country, with a mayor and form of local democracy dating back to the early 1400s, was dismissed without a thought. It was replaced by a toothless committee with no powers or funding that is effectively a talking shop. The abolition of Clonmel Corporation has done serious damage to what was a thriving town but now needs serious regeneration and redevelopment. Not only do we need urgent access to urban regeneration funding for the renewal of our town centre, we also need the re-establishment of Clonmel Corporation, South Tipperary County Council and the town councils of Carrick-on-Suir, Cashel and Tipperary.

Local government is the beating heart of our democracy. The programme for Government references strengthening local government but in a generalised and non-specific way. One of its very few specific commitments is the promise to convene a local democracy task force. I call on the Minister of State to set up that task force immediately, with the specific objective - not the generalised woolly thinking and talk in the programme for Government - of re-establishing town and borough councils throughout this country. No planning framework can succeed without local democratic input from locally elected representatives, especially in our large towns, cities and urban centres throughout the country.

See this speech in context