Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue I often raise, namely, the circumstances pertaining to city and county councillors throughout the country. I am aware of the fact the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, met the Minister recently and a review is in place. This morning, I received an email I want to share with the House. I will not share the name of the author or the council involved. The man explained his workload has become overwhelming. There are increased meetings, contacts by phone, emails, text messages, Facebook, letters, face-to-face meetings, house calls and clinic days.He talked about the particular area in which he was living and said it had lost five town councils and its county council had been revised. A total of 65 seats have been reduced to 18 seats to cover the entire county. He also talked about the number of young county councillors who have resigned. He said that their resignation letters stated that their workload on the council while trying to hold down a job had become impossible.

My brief is no more than that of any other Member of this House. We are all subject to the consideration of the city and county councillors. We are the representatives in the Oireachtas and we have to do something for them. Their travel rates have been reduced for the first 1,500 miles. Deputies and Senators do not pay rates on their offices, yet county councillors who open offices have to pay rates. Councillors cannot claim back the rental on their offices. There are no support services available to them in terms of the cost of envelopes and of mailing letters to the people they represent. The majority of the Members of this House will be calling to county councillors at the time of the next election. We have to show that we have done something to alleviate their problems. We cannot allow young people - who represent the future of this country - who get involved in politics to become disillusioned by virtue of the fact that they cannot afford to carry out their jobs.

I have received countless emails from female councillors with children who simply cannot afford to stay on in their roles. There is no childminding facility available to them or payment for them when they attend council meetings. This is grossly unfair. Democracy works from the ground up. I know every Member of this House and I am not taking any particular stand that any other Member would not take. All Members view this issue in the way that I do and they would want to see this resolved. Surely to God we can do a better job for those who are in the front line all day, every day. As one councillor said to me recently: "I cannot go to the toilet but somebody will stop me on the way in or the way out to tell me about a local problem". We cannot stand over that. I ask the Leader to ensure that we start to address this issue as early as we can in September.