Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The Minister of State’s role in ensuring action was taken on foot of the Moorhead report to address the terms of conditions for councillors needs to be acknowledged. The Minister of State provided great leadership in that regard and I know he continues to work closely with the representative bodies, the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, in trying to ensure that the role of councillors is recognised and in making sure that their terms and conditions are improved. The implementation of the new regime, though, has resulted in a number of problems, particularly around the area of vouched expenses, where different rules or interpretations seem to be applied by the different local authorities.

Councillors are looking for consistency in the application of those expenses, so that when they submit applications for expenses, they will know that no matter where they are located in the country, the same rules will apply. A problem has arisen, as I am sure the Minister of State is aware, with regard to the chairs of the strategic policy committees, SPCs. That allowance has now been interpreted as a taxable form of income. This means that even though some councillors were financially better off as a result of the increase in the councillor’s salary, the net effect is that because their SPC allowance is now taxed, they may not be better off as a result of that change.

I would also ask the Minister of State to look at some of the questions around the travel bands. Obviously, the cost of travel has increased significantly and there are some issues around the levels given for travel expenses, depending on where within a county an individual councillor may be located.

Finally, there is, and I would appreciate the Minister of State’s views on this, some concern around the gratuity payments that have been made. There has been a reduction from 100% of final salary to 75% of final salary. Indeed, that will impact on a number of us in this House, whenever we decide to leave politics. I know much of the focus of the Moorhead report was around the terms of conditions, but part of the recommendations were about the devolution of more powers to local authorities. This would give councillors greater responsibility and more time and support in dealing with issues around governance and around policy development.

We know how hard the 949 councillors around the country work. All of us who are in this Chamber now would have come from that background, as have many others in these Houses. One of our challenges has been around juggling time. Frequently, local government in Ireland feels powerless. In fact, we still do not have local government. We continue to have local administration.

I would be interested to hear the Minister of State’s plans to look at devolving more powers and supports to local authorities. It is key that we look at encouraging - I know the Minister of State is doing this - a broader range of people into local government from as diverse a range of backgrounds as possible. The Minister of State is actively encouraging more female members and more people from minority backgrounds to come on board.

There is a general concern that applies across Government, and in the Minister of State’s capacity I would ask him to look at this, which is the habit in legislation to exclude councillors from appointment to State boards. It makes sense why Members of the Oireachtas are excluded, because we have a role in the setting of the legislation, and so on. We frequently deal with State boards. Even though it is an open application process, all things being equal, just because somebody is a councillor, they should not be excluded from a State board. This is particularly the case when we are trying to encourage as many people as possible to become involved in local authority.

I commend the Minister of State on his work, and I am very grateful that he continues to work closely with the AILG and LAMA. However, I would hope that he would be able to provide us with a response to some of those issues, as well as how he is enhancing the role of local councillors generally.