Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I just counted to ten. Many delicate negotiations will have to take place, predominantly with the Minister. The previous Seanad's group met the then Minister, Deputy Kelly, with the representative associations to discuss these issues. We cannot negotiate on the floor of the House. Negotiations must be done with the respective people on both sides. We have made a serious statement on behalf of councillors in what we have done this evening. We need a timeline. Councillors' rates of pay must be addressed given the surveys showing how much work councillors do and how many meetings they must attend, including those that are not council meetings. If one attends two community-based meetings per night, one does not sign anywhere to prove one's attendance.

Many issues must be clarified, but much work has already been done and we do not need to reinvent the wheel. The 2014 legislation was reviewed and, on 6 April, the then Minister tabled a proposal as a starting point to increase the annual allowance and change it to an administrative assistance payment to reflect its purpose more correctly. We must get the current Minister to buy into what has been done in this regard. Then we need to consider councillors' rates of pay and the PRSI issue. I commend a former Minister for social protection, Dr. Michael Woods, on introducing a new class of PRSI for Protestant ministers, of whom there are 300 or 400. There are approximately 1,000 councillors. Surely we could come up with something to sort out this issue. As Senator Paddy Burke stated, it is a complicated one. I met a councillor of pension age in Leinster House last week who was still paying 4% of his councillor's allowance into a pension even though he was already getting it. That is daft.

The Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, and the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, have met the Minister and laid out their stall which entailed something similar to Senator Boyhan's four points. The Minister is well aware of the issues. One of the associations will meet the Minister for Social Protection in Leinster House tomorrow evening to discuss the PRSI issue. We have moved things on but the all-party group, inclusive of all groups, will be beneficial. The first thing we need to do is request a meeting with the Minister. We need to have the two associations present at that meeting in order to go through the issues they want resolved, such as those read out this evening. We want to see the possible timelines for those.

We have made considerable progress on this and I am happy to support the motion, although I could not second it earlier today.