Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This debate centres on the terms and conditions of councillors. Changes in this regard were introduced in the Local Thes have not worked. They have increased the workload of each local councillor to an astronomical degree. The Minister of State inherited this problem. It is a major problem because there has been a 40% cull in the number of practitioners of democracy at a local level. Those people have been providing a service. What happens when one takes 40% of the workers out of a factory?Clearly either one gets robots in to do the work or one increases the workload for the remaining workers. There are 949 workers left in the factory of local democracy and they have an increased workload. The AILG has carried out an analysis on this and I carried out my own analysis as part of a masters degree programme and, according to the councillors themselves, their workload has increased by more than 60% but they are not being remunerated for that. I am sad to say that the proposals brought here today are not sufficient. We can tinker around the edges, talk about €1,000 here, an overnight payment there and so forth but that is not dealing with the problem. The problem is that we are going to lose more councillors from the democratic system because they cannot afford to stay in the system.

We live in a democracy which consists of both democratic and Executive institutions. The proposals before us today have come from the Executive arm of the State and are being forced upon the democratic arm of the State because the former does not hold the latter in high enough regard. Public representatives and the leadership in all political parties - I am not singling any one out for blame here - have an obligation to stand up for those who practice democracy at the local level. Otherwise, it is a race to the bottom. We should not be here today talking about an additional €2.50 per day or an annual allowance of €1,000. That is an absolute travesty. It will not work and we are going to see the further demise of local government as a result. I ask the Minister of State to get the commission up and running immediately.