Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. While I always will be courteous to a decent Kilkenny man, I am unsure whether I will be as receptive to the Bill itself. Instead of calling this the Local Government Reform Bill, I would be inclined to call it the local government choke Bill. The Bill has many negative aspects and while I will not have time to dwell on them all and do not wish to be completely negative about it, instead of empowering the citizens of Ireland it centralises power and disempowers ordinary citizens.

It is an attack on local democracy. I question many aspects of the Bill and perhaps the Minister can provide me with answers. He will know the plan will lead to Ireland having the most centralised government in the western world. We often talk about the much better systems of local governance in Norway, Sweden and Finland but Ireland is moving in the opposite direction.

I oppose the Bill for another reason. Instead of the Bill putting people first, power will be bestowed on the bureaucrats. Many powers will be taken away from the ordinary elected public representatives and put in the hands of what the Minister calls chief executives, which is just a new name for county managers.

I wish to focus on a number of issues for the few minutes allotted to me. I am puzzled by the lack of parity and equity in the quota system for local authorities because I thought the legislation was about transparency and openness. Let me give one simple example. Two areas have been merged to produce the new re-organised west Cork area and the number of seats has been reduced from 12 to eight seats. I compare that with the Mizen Head peninsula which comprises six inhabited island and is geographically larger than nine counties. Cork city's quota will be approximately 1,500 or 1,600 but for the new area it will be 3,500 which is not on. Fair representation means the same figure should apply for cities and towns. If anything, the system should be like the American Senate where Alaska is guaranteed two Senators and Arizona, with its low density of population, is guaranteed representation. The Minister should ensure the same applies to rural places like County Leitrim, west Cork or north-west Donegal. Unfortunately, the same will not happen.

What would happen if a constitutional challenge were taken against the legislation? I do not intend doing so but there is a lack of parity and great inequity between areas. My local area will lose three town councils, among which is the excellent Clonakilty Town Council led by an excellent mayor who has done Trojan work over the year. It is a great loss to lose mayors. My area will also lose Skibbereen Town Council and Bantry Town Council with a total loss of 27 town councillors and four county councillors. With the area of Skibbereen-Clonakilty being amalgamated with Bantry, the original combined total of 12 members will be reduced to eight posts. It is ludicrous that remote parts of rural Ireland will have greatly increased quotas for representation. There is great disparity throughout the country in the treatment of places.

My next query is on the local property tax. Why will the tax in many areas, particularly in my own county of Cork, fund the water services provision for the coming year? In effect, the local property tax will fund the provision of another tax.

I wish to raise a point about the rating situation. I cite examples that are not common for me but I am sure are typical of other areas. At present, Skibbereen Town Council and Clonakilty Town Council have a rate that has remained at 10% below the county council average over the years. Both towns are hard-pressed to survive and small businesses must eke out a living. However, the town councils must increase the rate to the county average. For some businesses it will mean a massive increase of 10% for one, two or three years. The increase is unfair and unjust and I ask the Minister to address the matter in his reply.

The legislation deals with local government reform. How will the new legislation treat the change political control of local authorities? Since 1999 local authorities, with some exceptions, have been in the control of Fine Gael and the Labour Party, with terrible planning decisions taken in various counties, including County Cork.

Since 1993 Fine Gael or the Labour Party or both have controlled planning. I know a man whose properties are in NAMA. He told me that since 1999 he never bothered with us because there was no point in that the majority of the councillors who had a say in the development plans were Fine Gael or Labour Party councillors. That is why they were running to them and having tea parties with them. We were accused of being in cahoots with developers and so on but that was not the case. That should be recognised. I was the last Fianna Fáil chairman of Cork County Council in 1991, which is 22 years ago. Geographically, it is the largest local authority in Ireland. Currently, it is controlled by Fine Gael which ditched the Labour Party when it suited it. Traditionally, it has been controlled by Fine Gael and the Labour Party and that point is worth noting.

Another point, which I know might be of historical interest, is that some desperate planning took place in local authorities. During the last Government, I did not always agree with what the Green Party was doing but it called for an investigation of five local authorities to ensure planning procedures were properly adhered to over the past decade or more. I understand that once the Minister took the reigns, he decided to abandon such investigations. I am not sure what the reasons were but it is important to know them. We are always looking over our shoulder at the past but it is important to ensure that where mistakes were made - we are always looking at ghost estates - we should investigate why they were made and ensure they never again happen.

Bad rezoning, to which I already alluded, was done by councils which were primarily under the control of Fine Gael or the Labour Party or both. Councils in which Fianna Fáil was in control and where there was bad planning should be looked at also. Some terrible mistakes were made in the planning area.

The greater Dublin area will be looked after, as will the cities, because the number of councillors in them will be dramatically increased. However, there will be a deficit in rural Ireland. Will rural planning be protected? I come from a peninsular area in west Cork and have been a long-term advocate of once-off rural housing where there is a genuine local need. A farmer's son or daughter or a nephew can have difficulty getting planning as, in most cases, An Taisce rejects it, irrespective of the criteria. Will once-off rural housing be properly protected in this Bill? The Minister might give me an assurance in that regard.

In the day's when Dick Spring was the Minister, An Taisce was given extraordinary powers to object to any planning, including rural planning. An Taisce has a critical role in protecting heritage and so on but its interference in once-off rural housing has been to the detriment of communities.

I would like to instance a case which was not in my area and in which I was not involved politically but of which I know. A family with five very handicapped children and which was extremely disadvantaged in more ways than one was looking for a new house with special facilities but An Taisce took the case all the way to An Bord Pleanála and succeeded in blocking it, despite the fact councillors from every party said it was a disgrace. The Minister said this Local Government Reform Bill provides for much transparency and openness in local government. Will the right of An Taisce to look at once-off rural housing in a very narrow and biased way be taken from it? Will its powers be somewhat fettered?

I am going to be a bit parochial again and talk about the town councils of Skibbereen and Clonakilty.

They have won numerous Tidy Towns awards, international gold medals and European awards. They have done excellent planning also but all those powers are now being taken from them.

The Minister spoke about setting up numerous municipal district councils. I am concerned that will be little more than a window dressing exercise in that those municipal district councils will not cater for the needs of townspeople in the way the town councils catered for them.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Hogan, to the House but I have major reservations about the Bill. The last local government Bill abolished the dual mandate. I contested at the time with the then Minister, Noel Dempsey, that that was a retrograde step but this is making much worse matters that he made bad.