Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was very proud to be elected three times to local government and to spend a total of more than 12 years serving on four different councils. During that time I served also as chairman of an area committee of 20 councillors, for which I did not receive any allowance. That was fair enough and I did not seek any such compensation. However, the reality is that this particular committee was larger than some local authorities. The workload, too, was large, with two-hour meetings taking place twice per month every month, on the first and fourth Monday. Meanwhile, there are cathaoirligh of municipal districts, some of which have only six members, in receipt of an allowance of €6,000, €12,000 or €18,000. Serving as first citizen of a county is undoubtedly a very important job but if we are going to have chair allowances for municipal districts, and I have no problem with that, then there also should be a recognition of the work involved in chairing an area committee. I do not aspire to go back to that role any time soon but, who knows, I might be back in it sooner rather than later. There should be parity of esteem between chairmen of municipal districts and those local authority members who chair very large area committees with very substantial meeting schedules. Of course I chaired some meetings that did not last very long but I am sure that also happens in municipal districts.

There must be an acknowledgment that councillors in urban areas deserve to be compensated on the same level as those who represent rural areas. I was very happy to serve for more than 12 years in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown but I must point out that the €1,000 payment is taxed. Most people were expecting that allowance not to be part of representational payment but, rather, a payment in recognition of the efforts made by councillors serving large populations. There are councillors in Dublin city in eight-seat and nine-seat areas who have almost a whole Dáil constituency or certainly more than half a constituency to service. Consider the outcome if we were to allocate the appropriate numbers of representatives in accordance with the recommended ratio of one councillor for every 4,700 citizens.Dublin City Council does not have 63 members, it has 119. All areas are slightly different but those councillors are effectively representing double the average number of constituents. In some rural areas, there might only be between six and nine councillors, rather than a minimum of 18. I am not having a go at these councillors at all, not in the slightest.

It is important to realise that while councillors in Dublin might represent relatively small geographical areas, they service a huge population. They may not be doing great mileage - I will deal with that matter in a moment - but it may take them a very long time to cover the distance. Many of us spent a lot of time - some more than others - travelling through Dublin earlier and anyone in the city today would realise that. If a councillor is in a more rural area in which traffic is light, he or she may have to travel a fair distance but will at least get some recompense through the mileage allowance. In Dublin, a councillor must still spend the time travelling but he or she will not get anything for it.

We are asking many of our councillors to operate on an almost full-time basis. Many of them would not get re-elected if they were not working almost full-time. A large number of councillors are putting in more than 40 or 50 hours a week. It is not a nine-to-five job. They work weekends, they attend functions, cake sales and fairs and the attend meetings of the committees of which they are members by virtue of being councillors. We are asking for a part-time wage of €16,000. I think most people in this Chamber or elsewhere would acknowledge that it would be very difficult to live on €16,000. That is less than the minimum wage and does not reflect the hours they work. We need to acknowledge that they make a great contribution. We ask them to do a great deal of work and to serve on an awful lot of committees, yet they are not being treated in the way we would acknowledge that they should be treated.

Councillors are the only people in the entire public service who do not get pensions. People working part-time in the most basic grades of the public service get pensions based on their years of service, although they are probably on very low salaries and would receive very low pensions as a result. Councillors are the only people in the entire public service who do not get that. I acknowledge the work on PRSI but, up until very recently, councillors were also paying a 4% politicians' supertax and getting nothing for it.

Many councillors work on many committees for nothing. I was on theatre boards and the board of DLR Properties. There were no expenses or allowances. I sat on boards on which half the people - members of the audit committee, the non-councillors - were getting paid €4,000 to act as chair for four meetings or €2,000 to attend those meetings as members. The rest of us, the local authority members, got nothing for our work. We were sitting on the boards and some people were being paid while some were not. There were those who were getting expenses while others were not. All those matters need to be addressed.

The €1,000 is welcome, although it is paltry enough. Much more needs to be done. I acknowledge the Minister of State's bona fides on the issue. Hopefully, we will see more. We need to realise that many councillors will be worse off. The mileage rates are being cut. Most people realise that they will be on less money next year than they were this year, despite the €1,000. That needs to be acknowledged.