Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. It is well recognised that we have a national democratic deficit in this country. In fact, Ireland is the most centralised country in the EU in terms of its democratic structures. Since this Government came into power there has been an attempt to centralise power further by way of the attempted abolition of the Seanad and the abolition of Údarás na Gaeltachta. Now we have the proposed abolition of town councils and the elimination of 744 town councillors who are representing their local communities.

We have the lowest level of local public representation in the EU, with one elected local authority member representing 2,815 people. The ratio in Britain, which is in second place, is 1:2,600. In Denmark, by contrast, there is one locally elected public representative for every 1,115 people, while the ratio for France is 1:118. The last figure in particular seems amazing to us, but the system in that country is working. In every town, village or crossroads, there is a mayor or other elected representative as the point of contact within the local authority system. Under this legislation, however, there will, in future, be one local authority member for 4,800 people. In other words, we will still be the worst in Europe when it comes to local representation, but our ratio will now be worse than that in the country in second place, Britain, by a factor of almost two. Nobody could accept that this change represents better local government.

The argument for the abolition of town councils is that they do not have any power and do not do anything. The reality, of course, is that they do nothing because they have been given no power to do anything. That stripping of power has taken place incrementally, under previous Governments as well as the current Administration. Responsibility for the collection of waste was taken away from local authorities and the provision of housing transferred over to housing authorities and private housing associations. In some areas responsibility for roads has been given in large part to the National Roads Authority, which is even getting involved in planning. There have been many cases where planning permission was refused when land went directly onto national or even secondary roads. Suddenly the NRA began making planning decisions and blocking applications in respects of hundreds of thousands of acres around the country. In addition, the establishment of Irish Water will see the responsibility for the water supply taken away from local authorities. The health boards, meanwhile, were abolished with the establishment of the Health Service Executive.

It all amounts to an incrementalised centralisation of power. This Bill represents the culmination of that process, with town councils being abolished with the cry that they do not have any power. They have no power because they were given no power. If they were assigned the same powers as are given to the corresponding bodies in France, we would actually see democracy operating at a local level. This legislation has all the hallmarks of the PATRIOT Act in the United States, in respect of which it was claimed that one could not oppose because it would certainly provide better local government. Nobody is opposed to better local government, but the Bill before us today does not deliver it. It is, in fact, about better bureaucracy and, as such, it is better for bureaucrats but certainly not for citizens.

Our proposal, and it is one we hope Members opposite will support, is that the new chief executive officer, who is all powerful under these provisions, should be elected for a five-year term. This elected person would have all the responsibilities of a chief executive, including the power to hire and fire, to make decisions and make mistakes, and take the consequences of any such mistakes. There must be serious auditing and oversight of the activities of any person given such a powerful role and who will be in charge of so much public money. If the people of counties Kerry or Kilkenny or any other county in this country were able, every five years, to hire, through the ballot box, a mayor or chairman to run the county on their behalf, then they would also have the ability to fire him or her if things did not go well. We see the situation in some counties where enormous legal bills were racked up by way of a fruitless exercise in the High Court. Somebody should carry the consequences of that and it should be those responsible for pursuing that course, not ratepayers. Citizens should have the capacity to express their opinion at the ballot box on the spending of millions of euro in an unnecessary and ultimately failed legal battle.

As I said, we have the most centralised system of government in western Europe. Powers have, by degrees, been taken away from local government in recent decades. The Government has abolished Údarás na Gaeltachta and is now eliminating town councils that have been in operation for 100 years. I am not arguing for the retention of any institution simply because it has been there for a long time. In the case of town councils, however, it is unacceptable to strip them of their powers and then argue for their abolition on the basis of their lack of powers. More power, not less, should be assigned at a local level and should be exercised by elected public representatives who are answerable to the people. Those who make the real decisions at council level - we all know who those people are - should be elected to their positions and held accountable to citizens. Unfortunately, under this legislation, those who are being given all the power will not be directly accountable to the people but only to the Minister.