Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Peter Burke, to the House and I thank for his time. He is familiar with Galway and I am hopeful that will help the case.

In Irish terms, Galway is a massive geographic county, inclusive of four offshore islands. It is the second largest county by land mass in the country. It takes two and a half hours to travel from west Connemara to the county border in Ballinasloe. It is too large an area to be served by one council. This will result in less connection with people of the county and diminish the importance of current electoral areas. The needs of Connemara and Galway city are very different and neither will be best served by a merger. My colleague, Senator Eugene Murphy, will elaborate further on that in his contribution.

International research of mergers of councils in other countries, primarily the UK and Australia, shows that bigger does not equal better. Irish local authorities are already large in size and they constitute some of the largest local councils in the OECD. Prior to the 2014 local government reforms, Ireland's average local authority size was approximately 40,000 residents. Now, with 31 local authorities, the average size is 150,000 residents, with the EU and OECD average less than 140,000. The population of County Galway is well in excess of 250,000 people. When combined with the geographic area already mentioned, it is clear both councils are required to serve the people of the county effectively.

The staffing and resources issue identified by the 2018 review, which found that both councils were significantly underfunded in comparison with other councils across the country, is a far more important issue to resolve. The advisory group stated that this funding shortfall must be addressed before any discussions regarding a merger could commence.