Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if and when he will re-establish town councils. [18786/16]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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This question relates to the Government’s intention to re-establish or re-instate town councils, not necessarily in their previous form but around those towns which have certain population numbers. Will the Minister seek to respond to that commitment? As we all know, and Labour found out to its cost towards the end of the last term, it is not reform when 1,100 councillors are got rid of. While many town councils needed to be streamlined, what we had was a hatchet job which needs to be corrected.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The decision to replace town authorities with a new model of municipal governance under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 was designed primarily to strengthen local government within counties and to address widely acknowledged and long-standing weaknesses and anomalies in the previous system, including divided administration between town and county authorities, for example, in matters such as planning, rating and charges.

Municipal districts now cover the entire territory of each county, reflecting European norms, removing outdated boundaries and ending the anomaly of small towns having municipal status and dual representation, while some larger centres and rural areas lacked any sub-county governance. As well as creating a more rational and comprehensive structural arrangement, the new system enables more effective and community-focused decision-making and implementation. Under the new arrangements, there is full integration of local authority resources across each county and elimination of duplication both in administrative and electoral terms.

In 2015, the first full year of the revised local government structures, a broadly based advisory group was convened to carry out a review of their operation in conjunction with a local government forum for engagement with the Association of Irish Local Government. Feedback from these deliberations, as well as the results of surveys of local authority members and chief executives, indicate that the revised structures are generally operating well but will need more time to bed down fully. The results of this operational review will provide a key input to the consideration of issues in the preparation of a report for Government and the Oireachtas by mid-2017, pursuant to the Programme for Partnership Government, on potential measures to boost local government leadership and accountability and to ensure that local government funding, structures and responsibilities strengthen local democracy, including the issue of town or borough council status.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Initial scoping work in relation to the development of proposals to address the requirements in the Programme for a Partnership Government is being undertaken in my Department.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his answer, despite the fact I cannot agree with all that is contained in it. It states an ongoing review is taking place and many city and county managers are happy with the progress being made.

Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Not so.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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That is not the case on the ground and it is not what is being relayed to me by local authority members and constituents. The Minister spoke about the number of councillors per head of population being over 2,800. In Denmark, a country of a similar size, it is one councillor per 1,115. In County Offaly, two electoral areas were joined together, Birr and Ferbane. The new area has six councillors, five centred in Birr with the remaining large geographical area with only one councillor. That councillor has little hope when it comes to seeking the repatriation of funds for roads and services in that wide geographical area.

The block grants for towns and roads are no longer the case. Equalisation has not gone well in many cases. The Boundary Commission will report on foot of the new census. Will serious consideration be given then for an engagement or reinstatement of some county councils?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I take the Deputy’s point. When considering new reforms around local government in the programme for Government, we are ensuring local government funding structures and responsibilities will strengthen local democracy. There will be the devolution of new powers to local authorities, the reduction in the size of local electoral areas, the possible introduction of directly elected mayors in cities, the possibility of extending the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts to include expenditure by local authorities and a review of supports for councillors in consultation with the Association of Irish Local Government and the Local Authority Members Association. We have committed to reviewing how local government functions and is funded, and the devolution of powers from the centre to local authorities and we will do that by the middle of next year. Within that context, we will seriously look at whether we should revisit town councils and how they would be structured. We are not going to replicate what was there previously, whereby some towns had councils but others did not for historical reasons. We want consistency where, if a town’s population chooses, then they would have the option but that there is fair treatment of towns across the country to give everybody the same opportunity.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister has committed to a review to address the functionality of what has taken place and the functionality of what may emanate from a review, how it is funded and the devolution powers. I have mentioned some instances where these were not at all appropriate or have not turned out as one would have expected or wished. There is also the area of facility services available to councillors in local authorities from an administration perspective and for assistance on a professional level on development plans and so forth. The Minister for Social Protection recently commented on the PRSI contribution made by councillors as S class and the meaningless value associated with that in regard to the return that does not accrue to them.

1 o’clock

Will the Minister consider how this might be addressed? Some thought might go into a package to improve their lot, given their service and the commitment they have shown in their communities.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On that last point, we need to value democracy, and that includes local democracy as well as what happens in this House. We need to encourage people into politics, and to do that, we need to ensure it is properly resourced in order that councillors can do a professional job and represent people properly. The demands on local councillors are now more severe than they would have been in the past and the way people communicate with councillors is much more immediate in terms of demanding answers. Of course, because of the changes, many councillors in rural areas in particular are representing huge geographical areas. For example, the area of west Cork is bigger than many Dáil constituencies in terms of physical footprint. We need to ensure councillors get the support they need in order that we can keep good people in local government. We should not shy away from that just because it might be controversial.

This is one of the areas I would like to deal with first to ensure we send out a message that local government is valued and will be properly resourced, within obvious parameters and limits, and in a transparent way in terms of how that money is spent. I take the Deputy's point. I hope I can look forward to the support of other parties in the House on issues of general resourcing such as this.