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

I am not talking about my party colleagues, I am talking about a former Independent councillor who is now a Minister, Deputy Seán Canney, who has been a leading advocate for the merger. He comes from one of the larger towns in County Galway which, as some would say, would suffer in the event of the merger. Would he support it if he really felt that Tuam would be destroyed? Instead he takes the view, which I share, although I will not go so far as to say that it is the correct view, that parts of Galway cannot be looked at in isolation to the entirety. That reflects what I said in my response to Senator Ó Domhnaill about how people's habits have changed, such as shopping or where they do business. There are large regional towns in Galway which have been transformed, largely in a negative way, since the Celtic tiger years, where many main streets are empty and idle because traditional businesses do not exist. Many people commute into Galway and do their shopping there or they do it online. That structure no longer exists.

Despite the best efforts of the councillors in County Galway under the two separate local authorities that have existed since 1985, to reverse that or do something about it, there has been no fundamental reform that might ultimately re-energise those streets. I do not see how keeping them separate, which some political opponents of this section have suggested, is a solution for those regional towns in Galway into the future. Rather, what needs to happen in Galway is what has happened in Cork city where we will have one authority which is responsible for all the city and its hinterland, and a bit more besides, for the next 50 years and beyond. We need a local authority structure in Galway that will do the same for it.

I share and understand some of the regret and reservations that Oireachtas Members and councillors have expressed about changes in population that would result in changes in representation levels. I sought to address it last night and do so again as best I can tonight in the absence of the full Galway Bill. I am not only opposed to that but very much supportive of the idea that there would be two separate chambers. We are providing that there will be two separate elections, notwithstanding the fact that the law will have been enacted and there will be one manager.

I believe that Wandsworth and Richmond - the name of the former has come back to me - are the two London boroughs that merged their local authorities but still have two chambers, or two councils. That was how it was in Galway city and county until 1985, when there was an experiment to give it a separate city council. It worked for a long time but, to my knowledge, and I might be wrong, it contributed to some of the hollowing out of some of the regional towns around Galway. I do not think it was done deliberately but it was an effect of what happened in the mid-1980s. It was also open to every Minister and politician who has served in the last thirtysomething years to do something to address the under-funding that it created in County Galway, but that was never done. It was never done through the years of the Celtic tiger when there were enough millions of euro that we could talk about abolishing certain forms, or nearly every form, of property taxation, and there was enough to solve many of these issues.