Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted that the issue of councillors' terms and conditions has been raised. I have been raising it regularly and I was the only Oireachtas Member on the review group on local government set up by the former Minister, Deputy Kelly. We surveyed councillors' terms and conditions, including their work conditions. The Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, also conducted a survey. Both surveys showed that, on average, a councillor spent 35 hours per week on council work. The case is well made for councillors' terms and conditions to be improved.

In my amendment to Senators Craughwell and Boyhan's motion, I spelled out what was proposed by the then Minister but which did not get through the process. One element was to increase councillors' annual allowance from €2,286 to €4,500. This measure has been proposed and is there to be implemented. With my amendment, I second Senator Craughwell's motion.

I support Senator Murnane O'Connor. In the previous Seanad, there was a group on which Senator Wilson represented the Fianna Fáil Party. We met the Minister. It worked well and caused the review to happen but this is an ongoing process. It has nearly been brought to finality-----