Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Kelly for giving me that minute and a half. I am disappointed. Local government has been crying out for real and meaningful reform going back many decades. An attempt was made in 2001 but unfortunately some of the initiatives in the 2001 Act were subsequently reversed. These current proposals are not reform but rather rationalisation of councils, which is the corollary of embracing the principle of subsidiarity. We should be empowering councillors at local level. We should be transferring a number of the executive functions from the manager and making them reserved functions of councils. I see no reason in the current climate to have any executive functions. Councillors should be empowered to make decisions. The process should be transparent to ensure they are held accountable for their decisions and also the manner in which they make them. There is nothing in the Minister's statement about the devolution of powers to councils. Other countries have a variety of public services which are administered and controlled by local government, but that is not the case in this country. The only initiative in the past ten years was from the Department of Justice and Equality. Why do local government members not have a greater role in our dysfunctional health services? It has been found that the centralisation of health services has been a significant mistake. We have the most centralised governing system in the whole of the Western world.