Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the amendment. I congratulate my colleague, Senator Wilson, on introducing legislation in this area last week, which I hope the Government will act on, to extend the franchise for Seanad by-elections.

I agree with other Senators that it is important that local authority members, through the Local Authority Members Association, are recognised as a nominating body, as is the Association of Irish Local Government. Local councillors play a pivotal role. The changes in the legislation introduced in the 2014 Act by the then Minister, Mr. Hogan, increased the differential between the electorate and the councillors in the sense that Ireland became less democratic because there were fewer councillors at the point of contact with citizens through the removal of the town councils. That resulted in approximately one councillor representing approximately 4,800 people, whereas prior to that it was approximately one councillor per 3,000 people. We moved from being a country that was fairly democratic in comparison with other European countries on the league table in terms of local authority members per head of population to one which is on the outer limit in that regard.When that happened, there was an obligation for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to recognise it by giving additional resources to those councillors to fulfil their duties in a professional manner. These resources should not just be monetary resources but additional forms of support as well. It was mentioned by a number of Senators that over the past week, in particular, with the flooding we have seen, councillors have been at the coalface, delivering democracy at the local level. In order for this to be done efficiently and properly, and to provide the electorate-----