John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Ó Domhnaill and the co-sponsors for tabling the Bill.

The Government has considered the Bill and will not be supporting it. Before the Opposition jumps on me completely, I will outline the reasons and outline why this, in itself, is not the end.

At the start, Senator Ó Domhnaill spoke about the setting up of the group on councillors' remuneration. I would like to inform the House that we are just about finished with its terms of reference. I indicated to the House that it would start in May and finish at Hallowe'en and we are still on schedule for that to happen.

Part of that exercise is, for the first time in the history of the State, a proper scoping out of the role of a councillor, what it is now in terms of not only the legislative provisions and the reserved functions but what a councillor does and what into the future we would like to see councillors doing. Part of that will be a full consultation with the AILG and LAMA as well as with local authority management. Officials from the Department will be on that group, as will officials of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I am not averse to following that process, reviewing the guidelines or, indeed, for the first time, introducing regulations under section 136(3).

The main reason the Government does not support the Bill is that the existing local government legislation largely already allows for its main aims. It is a question of how we implement it.

Notwithstanding the fact that I have come across some examples anecdotally of local authority official responses that have been less than timely, there is a general good response level from most local authority officials. As I have said, I have come across a few stories regarding local representatives that are not acceptable. I acknowledge Councillor McLoughlin Healy who is in the Gallery. Other councillors have spoken to me about the Bill but, in the context of the review of the role, as well as the remuneration, I caution against acting in advance of the review. It might well be that some of the provisions of this Bill need to be implemented following the completion of that review in the fall of the year but the House should not divide on the issue because everybody is in favour of information flow. This Bill is about quality information. Whether it is local authority staff and management deciding that an issue cannot be resolved, there is no excuse for the absence of a response in a timely fashion.

However, I must point out that the Oireachtas is different than local authorities in the sense that parliamentary questions have a distinct role. As part of the scoping mechanism for councillors and their role, if some sort of a comparable function could be devised at local authority level I am not averse to that proposal either.That is why it would be better for us all to contribute to the scoping exercise that will be carried out.