Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to the House. I am conscious that he was a councillor for a long period and, therefore, knows about local government and the importance of city and county councillors who do their work for local communities. I will use my speaking time as constructively as I can and I will not repeat what others have said.

I want to thank the AILG and LAMA for the ongoing work of their executives and members in regard to councillors' remuneration, pay, conditions and the terms of their roles as local councillors. While I do not think that has been altogether successful, that is not to criticise them or their executives. Clearly, from the number of emails and telephone calls I have received, people are very angry, annoyed and disappointed.

I am an Independent Senator. The majority of my votes, though not all, came from Independent councillors and I never apologise for representing them and all councillors from all parties. I am amazed, having sat here and listened to the debate, because I would almost get the impression that those sitting here are not members of political parties and that there has not been a period of consultation. I would have thought that, within Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin, they would have discussed all this. We have a Government in place, supported by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that can command the attention of the Cabinet and people who matter in this country in regard to important issues. It is a bit rich to come in here and belly-ache about the condition of councillors and let it get to this stage.

We have to be realistic. A statutory instrument has been signed and that is where the matter stands. This is not a debate. Let us be honest and let us have an honest response from the Minister of State. He is not going to go away tomorrow and rubbish this statutory instrument and change it all. We are talking in a vacuum to some extent. I want to make that point as I think it is very important. All parties have councillors and all councillors from all parties are at some level disappointed at what has happened here today. Let us call a spade a spade.

I welcome the Minister of State's commitment to look at councillors' pay. Councillors, on average, are paid €16,500 and they pay tax on it. It is simply a disgrace. There is a suggestion there will be a commission or that somebody will review their pay, and there will be recommendations. However, I am hearing that those recommendations will not be implemented until 2019, which is not good enough, given this is 2017. If we really want to address the basic remuneration for councillors and put in place a system of remuneration that is respectful of their work and remunerates them for their enormous workload and additional responsibilities, it should be fast-tracked. This commission should get about its work and deliver its report quickly. Whatever that report recommends, it should be implemented. We should not be talking here in 2017 about some sort of pay for councillors that may be delivered in June 2019. There are many sitting county councillors today asking whether they will stay in this business. I got remuneration last year for my period in the council and, when I settled my tax bill with the Revenue yesterday, I can tell the House I was shocked by the level of remuneration I had to pay over to Revenue. It is not all kosher and it is not all cash for our pockets. This is something we need to look at again, although that is for another day.

It is important that the Minister of State tells us what he means by a commission, when he intends setting it up, what the timeframe is and whether he can bring forward the delivery of those recommendations.