Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I appreciate he is trying to bring about reform and that reform is necessary across all government sectors, as well as efficiency and cost effectiveness. However, I must say that the total abolition of town councils is a retrograde step. Town councils do a lot of work promoting the towns under their jurisdiction. While I appreciate that smaller towns do not have a dedicated council, they might have been better served if we had extended the service of the existing town councils to also cover smaller towns.

As I have already said, the amount of work the councils do is enormous. Like Senator Landy, I will take Killarney as an example, because that is the town I know best and I know the town council there is working in the best possible way to promote and run the town. The Minister knows, when a town mayor goes abroad, of the amount of status placed on that by the countries being visited. Given the amount of tourism Killarney Town Council has generated by twinning and by visiting countries abroad to promote the town, the cost laid out has been returned tenfold. Moreover, while I am only speaking about Killarney, I am sure this happens all over the country with all town councils.

Despite the publicity it got today, more than one thing happened at yesterday's meeting of Kerry County Council. One issue was that maps were given to the councillors to show them what the new council areas would look like. I can assure the Minister they are vast and frightening. One of the proposals is for an area running from Dingle to Tuosist, Kenmare, which is a 100 mile trip. This is ludicrous. I cannot see the councillors-----