Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I also welcome the Minister of State with responsibility for the local government sector, Deputy Phelan, to the House and acknowledge the work he has done to date in listening to the concerns of local authority members across the country regarding remuneration and terms and conditions. There was a widespread welcome for the establishment of a commission to examine the issue of remuneration and I hope that it undertakes its work programme as quickly as possible, with a conclusion reached in the autumn. We would not want to let the commission run on too long because we do not know what the political landscape may bring. In that context, it is vital that the conclusions of the commission are brought to bear as quickly as possible.

The purpose of the Bill before us is to support those same local government members who number 949 and who make a massive contribution on a daily basis to Ireland's democratic process. I welcome Councillor Fiona McLoughlin Healy to the House this evening. She is a member of Kildare County Council and has garnered a lot of experience in a system in Kildare of tracking representations made by councillors. The issue of representations made by councillors is more fundamental than what is contained in this Bill because it gets to the core of Ireland's democratic system.

In 2017 local government in Ireland had a budget of €4.4 billion expended across various services. The budget increased in 2018 to €4.8 billion and is distributed across 31 local authorities. Over 30% of the budget is spent on housing while the roads allocation is €913 million, or 19% of the overall budget. Environmental services account for 13.6% of the budget, approximately 10% is spent on recreation and amenities, 8.7%, or €415 million, is spent on development management and 7.9%, or €378 million, will be spent on water this year. The remaining budget is broken down under two subheadings, the first of which includes agriculture, education, health and welfare and the second is miscellaneous services. Miscellaneous services is a budget line that is open to all sorts of interpretation and more transparency is required in this area but that is a debate for another day.

Local authorities have a massive budget which is spent on crucial services for local communities all over the country. I have brought the Local Government Accountability Bill before this House because the practitioners of democracy at the closest level to the citizen, namely, the councillors, are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain substantial answers from senior officials within the local authority system. These senior officials are paid in excess of €100,000 but according to councillors are not democratically accountable.

Changes were introduced at local government level under legislation passed in 2014, some of which were welcomed while others were not. That legislation was introduced by the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, former Deputy Phil Hogan, from County Kilkenny. The changes were brought in on the understanding that elected councillors would be better positioned to hold the chief executives of local authorities to account but that has not happened.

I conducted research in preparation for this Bill and surveyed all local authority members across all political persuasions. I received in excess of 80 communications from members from Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Independent groupings, the Labour Party and so on. The universal theme that emerged was that when councillors made representations on behalf of an individual citizen or group, they found it very difficult to get a timely response from senior officials or from the chief executive of the local authority. The purpose of this Bill is to provide for such timely responses. The Bill provides that an acknowledgement must be sent to the councillor making the representation on behalf of a citizen or community group within seven working days and that a substantial response must be provided within 14 working days. That response must deal in its entirety with the issue of concern. Under the Bill, the Minister has absolute discretion in providing for a regulation.

Given the Minister of State's record to date I believe he will welcome this Bill. Indeed, I have no reason to believe that this Government will not be fully supportive of this Bill, especially as it will not impose any costs on the taxpayer. The Bill is simply about providing more transparent and accountable local democracy, which will help the citizen and the practitioners of that democracy at a local level. It enhances the ability of councillors to hold the executive or the council management to account. That was the objective of the 2014 legislation introduced by the Fine Gael-led Government so I do not see why this Bill would not be supported this evening.

There are many State agencies which sit at arm's length from the Houses of the Oireachtas but which provide an excellent service to Deputies and Senators. They provide timely responses to queries, often within three to four working days because of directions issued by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Those State agencies were clearly instructed to provide timely responses to queries from Members of the Oireachtas.The very least we could do is extend this privilege to local authority members by way of enactment of this Bill. There are data protection issues emerging owing to the coming into force of the general data protection regulation this year. The directive applies to Deputies and Senators who have the services of swift responses such that I do not see how it could be used to impede the process provided for in the Bill. We are looking for fairness for local authority members, transparency for the public and democratic accountability of management at senior level, particularly chief executive officers who are managing a budget of €4.8 billion this year. This level of accountability is necessary because the chief executive officers are not accountable to the Committee of Public Accounts. They should be, but they are not. If councillors are finding it difficult to hold them to account in getting responses to queries, that is unacceptable. Councillor McLoughlin Healy who is in the Visitors Gallery had to use the freedom of information process to garner a response on behalf of a constituent. That is disgraceful. I am assuming that the Government will support the Bill. Any attempt to block it would be very damaging to the work of councillors as they carry out their difficult roles in dealing with complex queries on behalf of citizens.

I have received huge feedback on the Bill from citizens who are frustrated with the process. For example, in County Donegal councillors who make representations on behalf of constituents often have to send three, four, five, six or seven emails or letters to the chief executive and senior management before they receive a response to a query. That is unacceptable. They are often fobbed off with a couple of acknowledgements in the hope the query will go away. That, too, is unacceptable. If we are to improve the level of democratic accountability in local government, we have to start somewhere. The Bill will not resolve all issues, but it is an attempt to improve the structures in place. I am open to suggestions from the Minister and will be happy to work with him on the Bill. As Senators and Members of the Oireachtas, our aim is to serve our communities better and try to ensure the citizen receives a better service from the State. Very often, we do not hear from citizens unless the system is broken. If we had a perfectly functioning system which is probably not in place, there would be no need for politicians to make representations and we could focus solely on policy at council level or legislation at national level. However, we do not live in that ideal vacuum; therefore, the representational route is crucial to citizens and communities. We must ensure the system is as fluid as possible and one of the ways by which we can do this is by providing for a binding obligation.

I hope the Minister of State will support the Bill. I have carried out some analysis of local government systems across various jurisdictions worldwide within the context of the OECD, some of which has been published. There are systems such as this in other jurisdictions which work effectively and there are no issues with them. I hope there will not be an attempt by the county managers' association to block this measure, but I should not be so pessimistic as to even think that. I look forward to hearing the contributions of the Minister of State and my colleagues. I thank my co-sponsors, Senators Victor Boyhan, Gerard P. Craughwell and Diarmuid Wilson. I look forward to listening to the debate.