Seanad debates

Tuesday, 18 December 2018

Local Government Bill 2018: Second Stage

 

12:30 pm

Photo of Gerald NashGerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I know there are others here who were elected on the same day and who have many and, I guess, diverse experiences of their time in local government and bring much to this important debate. I acknowledge Senator Buttimer's pride in terms of what is about to happen in Cork county and city. We will see in time whether it is the right approach to take. I welcome any effort, legislative or otherwise, to bring more coherence to local government and administration in this country.We have consulted in our party, through councillors and membership, particularly in areas affected by the changes proposed in the legislation. Unlike most, if not all, Oireachtas Members in Galway, although I do not want to speak for Senator Ó Céidigh, my colleague, the current Mayor of Galway, Councillor Niall McNelis, fully supports in principle what the legislation and, I hope, future legislation seek to achieve for Galway. He is a progressive thinker who has thought openly and laterally about the matter and about what it means for business, job creation and Galway's status.

From my spell as a Minister of State charged with job creation and the development of small business, and from the work I did with IDA, I know that when it promotes Ireland abroad, it likes to promote Ireland in the way that international investors like it to be presented, which is on the basis of city regions of a critical mass of population that can provide the supports and talent that business needs. That is why my colleague, Councillor McNelis, supports in principle what the legislation seeks to achieve, namely, to create that critical mass and supply chain of talent and ambition for Galway. Let us be honest: our cities are the main drivers of economic, social and cultural development. We have avoided that reality for too long but I am glad it has been reflected in the legislation, although it can be improved and I hope we can contribute to improving it. I look forward to seeing what the Minister of State proposes that the House support him on in regard to the enhancement of local government in Galway next year.

As I said, I support any measures that are designed to bring greater coherence to local and regional government, but I say that in a qualified fashion and the Minister of State has probably anticipated what I am going to say. Unfortunately, the legislation is selective in the areas that have been identified for greater coherence. In European Commission terms, if one considers the totality of the population of my home town of Drogheda, and if one is minded to breach a county boundary, one will see that the contiguous area of Drogheda is similar to, if not larger than, that of Waterford, yet it does not have any form of city status or one local administrative set of structures to administer the area.

Through the proposals outlined in Part 7 of a previous iteration of the Bill that was subsequently amended to remove the part, the Government acknowledged it wanted to see greater coherence, integration and co-operation between local authorities where boundaries may be contested. In 2015, a number of boundary reviews were undertaken, including in my area of Drogheda. I pushed for that boundary review not for any narrow, parochial reason, and I lost the following general election by a handful of votes. I also lost many votes in east Meath because people campaigned against me on the basis that I wanted vast swathes of east Meath and Drogheda to be included, but that was never the ambition of the review, as people would have found if they were honest with themselves.

Approximately 10,000 people live in housing estates in Drogheda and County Meath and, for administrative purposes, the estates are administered in Navan but they do not receive the types of services that people should expect in this day and age. While there are a few exceptions, namely, a few high-quality local representatives in the area, many local representatives are unknown to those areas. People from those areas contact people like me, who represented them in their Dáil electoral area, or the Minister of State's colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, who also represents them. The Minister of State understands the difficulties but he has his own local challenges in the south-eastern region and, therefore, I do not want to go into great detail.

Will we at some point take the bull by the horns and decide, in the interests of good government, governance and efficient administration, to breach county boundaries and ensure local government reflects the reality of life on the ground? Successive boundary reviews, including all those which were commissioned in 2015, fudged those questions. At the end of the Minister of State's prepared contribution, he stated: "The Bill also contains provisions to copperfasten the status of cities and counties by repealing the existing power to alter county boundaries by ministerial order, save where agreed by the relevant local authorities." Is the Minister of State referring only to the areas referred to in the Bill, or is he saying the Minister will no longer have the existing powers to alter boundaries? If the system is changed entirely, it will mean that the ambition of towns that should be cities, such as Drogheda, to become cities will be strangled. Will the Minister of State clarify that?

I understand why the Minister of State proposes a plebiscite on directly-elected mayors and we must have a direct consultation with the people in that regard. Before we proceed with the Bill, I would be interested to hear his views on what the powers of those directly-elected mayors will be, although I know it will be reflected in legislation he hopes to bring forward next year. Will we have a Cabinet-type structure in local government, where individual councillors will be elected to take on responsibility for particular roles and sections of the work of individual local authorities? That would ultimately be a positive development. We remember the Better Local Government initiative of my colleague, Deputy Howlin, in the 1990s in the then Department of the Environment. The ambition for the strategic policy committee, SPC, initiative was for the chairs of SPCs to have a direct policy responsibility, such as housing or economic development. I would appreciate hearing what the Minister of State has in store in that respect.

I agree with Senator Murnane O'Connor when she said that town and borough councils should not have been abolished under the 2013 legislation. It was a retrograde step. I reflected on the matter deeply because my area was directly affected and I can see the direct consequences of a loss of status, identity and local decision-making at a basic level, as well as a loss of the principle of subsidiarity in my town of Drogheda, although I do not want to be narrowly parochial. With one stroke of a pen, we lost several hundred years of history, and the same could be said for the borough councils of Kilkenny, Wexford, Sligo, Clonmel and other substantial towns across the country. While other towns were granted town government in 1898 under an Act, Drogheda and Kilkenny had it for several hundred years. We acknowledge, however, that the Labour Party was in government at the time and it should not have allowed that to happen. As my colleague, Deputy Howlin, said, he was too busy saving the country to keep an eye on the Minister who took the decision at the time. Damage was done and it needs to be addressed.

As the Minister of State will know, we have introduced a Bill to the Dáil to restore town and borough councils over a certain level and restore their functions. Will he give it his full consideration in the context of the reforms he will propose for next year? We are determined to push that legislation and ensure that, through the Statute Book, towns like Drogheda are given back the status they deserve.

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