Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his kind words. I was a councillor for 18 years so I know exactly how councillors feel today. My bugbear is the fact that town councils were abolished in 2014. In 2014 we had 1,627 councillors. We now have 949 councillors, with the loss of 678 councillors. That is an absolute disaster. From funding from local authorities, extra workloads, and even with the survey the Minister referred to which shows that 500 councillors replied, the issues were extra work and bigger areas.

I have spoken to many of the councillors and they are happy that the Minister has agreed to give a payment, and it is good to see that. However, the payment should be left as is and the €2,500 that the Minister has agreed to give should be vouched with the other payment. That is a balance. We need to have a balance, because the issue is the extra workload of those 678 councillors that are not there anymore.

With regards city councillors, we have four Dublin municipal councils and we have Cork and Galway councils. They did not receive the extra payment of €1,000 a year. That is unthinkable. There are 232 councillors who deserve that payment, and going forward that is something the Minister needs to address urgently.