Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I welcome the councillors, who are representing their colleagues and members of the AILG, to the Public Gallery. I wish them continued success in their great endeavours to ensure that their representatives achieve fair play, fair pay and fair terms and conditions for the great work they are doing.

I note that the Minister of State alluded to the fact that the debate was to be held during the week when Storm Emma landed. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, it had to be postponed. Storm Emma was another example of the great, valiant and un-rewarded work that councillors and public representatives do in their local communities throughout the country.It was a time of crisis for many communities. The first people at the coalface were councillors and public representatives. Without reward or pay, they led the lines of action, which helped many people to overcome the severe storm.

Fianna Fáil supports fair and appropriate pay and conditions for local representatives. Moreover, we believe it is time to overhaul and reform the local government system and to put additional powers and responsibilities into the hands of our local representatives. A major change in councillors' conditions was the expansion of local electoral areas to cover a much broader geographic area. Some councils were abolished and others were amalgamated, and the number of local representatives in Ireland was reduced from a previous high of 1,627 to the current number of 949. This means that, on average, each councillor represents approximately 4,500 constituents, which is a dramatically increased workload for each individual councillor.

The Government proposes to reduce the size of all local electoral areas to between five and seven seats, with provision for some even smaller three seaters and four seaters in sparsely populated places. However, the overall number of councillors across Ireland will remain the same at 949, so this will have no effect on the number of constituents that each councillor serves. In fact, the workload will increase even further, as the population continues to grow in virtually all areas of the country.

As the Minister of State is aware, councillors were surveyed in July and August 2016 and asked about their conditions. The overwhelming conclusion from that survey was that their workloads had greatly increased as a consequence of recent changes. The results of the survey show that 74% of councillors are spending ten hours or more attending meetings every week and 68% of them are spending an additional ten hours or more attending community events. As former councillors and current public representatives, the Minister of State and I both know that councillors work 24-7. One cannot quantify it by attendance at meetings or community events. A councillor is on call 24-7 and cannot go outside the door even at a social event without people making representations to him or her. The survey's figure of 20 hours is staggering, but the fact of the matter is that people at the coalface of the democratic system are working and are on call 24-7 and we still cannot agree proper pay, terms and conditions for them.

Against the background of much larger workloads, the Government introduced changes to councillors' expenses in January. It was clear at the time - I even said it to the Minister of State in this Chamber - that the proposed changes would lead to at least some councillors being worse off. That is exactly what happened, as the Minister of State has acknowledged. I am given to understand that more than half of all councillors are in a financially worse position than they were before the changes were introduced. I am at a loss to see what possible justification there could be for introducing what in reality amounted to a punitive measure against councillors, especially when it was well known within the Government the level of effort and commitment that councillors showed everyday serving their constituents.

It should be remembered that all of this occurred against a background of the economy growing by 7.8% in 2017 according to recent GDP figures released by the Central Statistics Office. Even if there are problems with GDP as a measure of economic performance, it is clear that the economy is growing and it is time for the Government to give proper recognition to the unique and vital role of councillors across Ireland.

The system as it currently stands is not fit for purpose. The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform announced in February that he would establish a review of councillors' pay and conditions. This review should take place as a matter of urgency under the direction of a strong and independent chairperson. The issue of councillors' pay and conditions must be properly addressed and resolved once and for all.

I will repeat a caveat. The major issue with the lack of urgency shown in addressing this situation is the fact that the people in government - the people in power - do not want to be seen giving something that might be viewed as beneficial to fellow politicians.