Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second Senator Darragh O'Brien's amendment to the Order of Business on lone parents.

I call on the Leader to ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come before the House to discuss his Department's decision to undertake a review 12 months after his decision to abolish town councils. I understand a parliamentary reply to my colleague in the other House, Deputy Barry Cowen, revealed that the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government was establishing a review group to examine the decision to abolish town councils. We argued against the proposal when the former Minister, Mr. Phil Hogan, brought forward the legislation to abolish local democracy at the level closest to the citizen by taking 80 town councils and their local councillors out of the democratic sphere. Mr. Hogan will be before the House later today in his new capacity as Ireland's European Commissioner, but he did not heed the call from this side of the House to carry out of a review before embarking on such a draconian measure. That legislation effectively removed two thirds of the bodies that represented citizens. By so doing, Mr. Hogan put a carving knife through local democracy. The change damaged rural and regional development because the 80 towns in question were the pivotal resource for regional development. They have been left without any democratic institution or democratic accountability. Will the Leader invite the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, to the House to outline his thinking on this matter, explain why a review group is being established and tell us whether he now accepts that such review should have taken place prior to the introduction of the legislation instead of having the taxpayer bear the brunt of poor public policy on the part of this Administration? In the wake of the Irish Water debacle, we are facing a town council debacle. It is an important issue, not just for councillors across the country but also for citizens who formerly were represented by town councils.