Seanad debates

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

2:30 pm

Photo of Gerry HorkanGerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I second Senator Wilson's proposed amendment to the Order of Business. I support his comments and those of Senator McFadden on councillors' pay and conditions. The Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, was in the Seanad before Christmas to announce these proposals and Senators were writing to councillors to congratulate them on what they were getting and accepting praise for all that they were delivering. However, then people realised that their allowances were being cut. I agree with Senator McFadden that we need to know what is happening.We need an analysis of every single one of the 949 people involved in local government, right across the 31 local authorities. We need to see what is happening. We have significant anecdotal evidence of people suffering a significant drop in their subsistence and mileage rates. The system is very cumbersome.

If a councillor is on an education and training board, a regional assembly, a health forum or a member of the AILG, the mileage rate changes over mileage terms. It means one has to seek different rates from the different authorities and account for all of this. Let us remember that a councillor is effectively a one person operation. Councillors answer their own phone calls and respond to emails. They do not have secretarial support, funded or otherwise, and if they do it is out of their own pocket. It is very important that we acknowledge the work they do.

The vast major of local authority members serve their community and are not in the role for the money. Very few people will get involved with the level of work required for €16,000 a year and a modest level of expenses. Why are members of the local authorities the only people in the entire public service who do not get a pension at the end of their service? If one does ten hours work a week in a part-time position for a number of years in a local authority, that service in pensionable. One will have a very small pension based on a very small salary. Councillors' pensions would not be expensive because they are not earning a lot of money to start with.

It is important that we acknowledge that people are contributing. Some councillors are serving since 1967, some since 1974, and others were elected more recently. They are not there for the money but should be entitled to a pension based on their years of service over many years. Councillors give up hours, weekends and evenings week in, week out to go to various functions and residents' meetings. They are not compensated in any way for those things and they go because they want to go. We should not leave people out of pocket. I came from a meeting with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, about public sector reform. He knows of a local authority that only has one ratepayer. We want to have a local authority membership representative of the area in which they live and we need to facilitate councillors with appropriate meeting times, an appropriate level of secretarial support, appropriate remuneration and compensation for expenses, and ultimately an appropriate pension based on the service they gave.

I ask the Leader to raise the issue of pensions for councillors with the Minister.

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