Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome back to the House the former Senator, now Minister of State, Deputy John Paul Phelan, for the fourth time on this topic in recent months. As I alluded to previously, it is a very important issue. I also welcome the fact that when we ran out of time on the previous occasion the Minister of State agreed to come back to the House to hear the views of those Senators who did not get to speak then.

In his contribution on the previous occasion, the Minister of State pointed out that some improvements have been made to the supports provided to councillors in the past 12 months. I take issue with a number of those changes which I argue were not positive for the majority of county and city councillors. The PRSI payable by councillors is now equal to that paid by the self employed. However, that is of little or no benefit to the majority of councillors. The sum of €1,000 was provided to recognise the additional workload which has arisen as a result of the creation of the municipal districts but that has not been added to the expenses of councillors. Even though they are expenses, they have been added to the representational allowance, which is subject to income tax and PRSI. The option of claiming €5,000 of vouched expenses is so restrictive that fewer than 3% of councillors have availed of it.Of the 55 councillors on Cork County Council, for example, only one has opted for it.

Another of last year's measures changed the payment rates for mileage and introduced a banding system on par with that in the rest of the public sector. The bands and rates were agreed to by the public sector unions and representatives of the Government without any input from those who represented local authority members. It is a fundamental principle of any negotiation on public sector pay and conditions that the people affected be represented. I regret that this courtesy was not afforded to local authority members through the AILG or LAMA. As the Leader said, the bands have led to the introduction of a requirement for the aggregation of travel claims by members of local authorities across the various bodies in which they represent the public. To reiterate, they are representing the public, not themselves. We in the Oireachtas have placed an obligation on local authorities to nominate various members to serve on education and training boards, ETBs, regional assemblies, the governing authorities of various third level institutions and many other bodies. We are now requiring councillors and their parent local authorities to administer an extraordinarily convoluted system for the payment of a pittance to local authority members to cover their travel expenses which they incur in doing their duty. As a result of the changes, quite a few members have become disadvantaged financially. The new system of travel expenses has caused significant difficulties for rural councillors, in particular. Some councillors who represent rural constituencies, in some cases island communities, are losing up to €4,500 or €5,000 for doing their job.

Special recognition needs to be given to the unique status of the role of the local elected member within the local government system. The possibility of having a dedicated travel rates system applicable to local authority members only needs to be considered. No elected members can be allowed to be worse off owing to the so-called improvements to which the Minister of State alluded previously. It is welcome that the Minister of State is considering establishing a review body to examine the basic payment to councillors. I agree with Senator Victor Boyhan and other colleagues who have contributed on this debate that we should not be reluctant to stand up in the Chamber and fight for proper basic salaries and pensions for the politicians at the coalface of our democracy, namely, county councillors. I would like to see a deadline placed on the review body's work. Perhaps the Minister of State might be able to enlighten us since his consideration of the issue has progressed since he appeared before us a number of weeks ago. That there would be an independent chairperson is welcome, but he or she should have a knowledge of local government. Preferably, the chairperson should be a former senior member of a local authority who understands what it is like to represent the general public and the struggle involved.

I thank the Minister of State for returning to the House. If he does not have good news for us now, we look forward to progress having been made by the time he appears before us for a fifth time to discuss the matter. The situation has been ongoing for too long.