Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Barrington report recommended district council level delivery, and that is what the Minister is doing now with a district and municipal system. That is part of the reform programme the Government is to undertake, which the Minister outlined. That will address weaknesses associated with inconsistencies of structure, inequality of representation and fragmentation and duplication throughout the county between town and county councils. One only has to see the duplication that has happened in any town and county. Where there is more than one principal town in a district how will the name of the district be chosen? That might be too detailed a question but it will probably be up to the local district. If the Minister has any further information on that it would be welcome but the functions that will be devolved from the council, and the Senator should check them out, will bring local democracy closer to the people.

In the system in Ireland some voters in a county have votes in towns. I sat on a council in Dublin which has a huge population but no urban council. This is now being corrected and the Minister is looking at the issue. He has mentioned the reduction in the number of councillors which must be seen in the context of dual participation. The ratios in representation have varied from one councillor for 1,400 constituents to one councillor for 8,398 on the council on which I sat in Dublin. This is dividing it out, looking at the whole country at district level. In Dublin, however, there is not going to be a district level. This is a special case because of the review that took place. It will be an issue decided locally in the Dublin area. Ireland is unique in Europe where town councils are very much the exception and municipal level districts are the norm. I understand from the report that cities will remain. I read in the report - the Minister might respond on this point - that mayoral status at municipal district level and in towns with a population over 20,000 will remain. This may mean too many mayors and not enough chairpersons in a county. Perhaps the Minister might comment on the issue of mayors versus chairpersons.

The Minister has mentioned - this is welcome - that there is scope for further extension of reserved functions of elected members. He has asked each Department to come up with proposals in this regard, to which I look forward. He is serious about the devolution of functions, as he has stated regarding local delivery, local responsibility and local democracy. He has answered a question I was going to ask on directly elected mayors.

I note the ACC and AMAI amalgamation. It is important that they are represented on any body which represents local authorities and that their input is maintained at every level.

The burden on councillors is much greater than it was 20 years ago when I was first elected. I ask the Minister if anyone has conducted a review of the hours spent on local authority work. I am all for local democracy and participatory budgeting, but they take time for councillors. While we all welcome the concept of voluntarism, we must consider that someone may have to pay for child care to sit on a council. Men have to pay for child care as well as women. It is not only a woman's issue. One does not want to have a situation where everyone does it voluntarily. It is no longer a voluntary job. People put a great deal of time into it. The report states the incentive to have high quality representation is important. I agree.

I refer to the community alignment plan for SECs in each county and joint participation by the community and voluntary sector. Senator Darragh O'Brien missed totally the extra powers being provided for the local and community voluntary sector in the SEC context. They will be there with local councillors to discuss local issues and their input is valuable. I recommend that SECs and the five-year city and county local development plans have local and community input. I hope this is included in the report. A national policy on the issue of devolution with local and community involvement is to be launched before the 2014 elections. I ask the Minister if it is on track.

The primacy and policy responsibility of local councillors are being strengthened vis-à-vischief executives and county managers. The Minister said there would be some support to ensure councillors could devise policy with chief executives and county managers. I will put specific questions to him later on that issue.

The report indicates that the national oversight and audit committee is to be integrated at some stage with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Given that the committee is overseen by local authority members, it is important that it include some representatives of their national representative bodies.

I cannot sit down without complimenting the Minister on the major reform that he has made in the anti-corruption measures, the political funding process, and the gender quotas, all of which are changing politics.