Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The issue I am raising relates to the terms and conditions of local authority members. As the Minister of State is aware, over the past several years, there are 678 fewer local authority members than there were when the reform of local government took place under the previous Government. There are now only 949 local authority members. We used to have 114 local authority areas, including town councils, but this has been reduced to 31. Ireland holds the sad distinction of having fewer public representatives per head of population than any other country in western Europe. There is one local authority member for every 5,000 members of the public, as opposed to one local authority member for every 100 persons in France. France takes local government seriously with every town, village and crossroads having somebody who represents the community at local authority level.

Ireland has not only taken away many of the local authority areas and members, but their terms and conditions have been reduced drastically over the years. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government previously outlined to the House why he was discriminating against those in Dublin, Galway and Cork cities and not treating them equally in his proposals.

I was hoping the Minister of State would outline to the House if the Minister has fulfilled his pledges to us and the terms and conditions he promised would be put in place. As they stand they do not go far enough to deal with the increased workload that local authority members face and the number of meetings they have to attend.