Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

We should stop reducing the number of councillors, give them more power and make them more responsible.

On the question of the alignment of partnerships and councils, I sat on the boards of two partnerships and I can say they are the best run, most efficient and most accountable organisations in this country. I feel that aligning them to the councils will be another retrograde step because the powers will lie entirely with the local authorities. The Minister in his speech said, "I want to make it clear that I am willing to continue that consultation and constructive engagement with the representative associations in the implementation of these reforms." That does not explain why the Department is refusing to meet with the union officials who represent staff in the partnerships. The Minister might give us some indication of whether he envisages that jobs will be lost with this alignment and, if so, how many he envisages will me lost.

To be fair to the Minister, and I will not take from him, he is a Minister of reform and he did bring in the gender quotas. However, there are many women who would love to be in politics but find it impossible because they have young children or because they are newly-married and are planning a family. There is no such thing as maternity leave or crèches for councillors. The Minister should look at this issue when he is undertaking reform.

I strongly urge the Minister to revisit the idea of totally abolishing town councils because they are invaluable to the towns. I spent time on a county council and I can categorically say that not once did I get a representation from the people regarding a town council issue, although Killarney is a town with a large population. I might have got medical card, social welfare or school grant issues but I never got a town council issue because the people went directly to their town councillors, who dealt with the matter. They ran the town efficiently. I ask the Minister to go back and rethink that part of his reform.