Seanad debates
Wednesday, 5 March 2003
Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed).
A question has also been raised in regard to full-time politicians at local level. We have come a long way in regard to the introduction of salaries. The current salary is insufficient to allow somebody to give up his or her job in order to become a full-time politician, which is a problem. Equally there is a difficulty for people who cannot get time off from their workplace to enter into local politics. They need to hold their job. We cannot have it both ways. If we encourage full-time politicians at local level they must be paid. In so doing we are not disenfranchising a person who has an existing job from taking on such a role. Having said that, I would not advocate that we have full-time politicians at the level of town commission or urban district council, although we are heading fast in that direction at city and county council level. There is some way to go before we reach that point.
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