Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to the amendment. I fully acknowledge the importance of the citizens' assembly and the Minister of State's commitment, along with that of the Government, to drive it through. I have no difficulty with that. I have no difficulty with the terms of reference, which are broad and comprehensive. All of that is good and is there for everyone to see.

I was a county councillor for many years and am a strong advocate for local democracy and local government. I am a strong advocate for more powers for local authorities. When this came across my desk last week, I immediately set about engaging with councillors on it. In fact, I engaged not just with some councillors but with all 994 of them. I sent out the same emails, letters and correspondence to them all and within two or three hours I had received nearly 60 emails in response. None of them were negative and they were cross-party and non-party. They raised the issue of the significant involvement of councillors with the community policing forums, local drugs task forces and so on. All of the responses were very positive. They were not responses of the "not in my back yard" variety. I would not tolerate that or advocate for it. These are people who recognise and have seen first-hand the scourge of drugs that has destroyed communities and families. Indeed, the problem has come right into many of our family homes. There is no family home that has not been touched by some form of drug abuse and the antisocial issues that surround it.

I support all of the work in this area but am not going to go into great detail on it now. The Minister of State crystallised a thought for me as she spoke. She said it was important that this citizens' assembly is allowed to do its work free from the Oireachtas. I fully agree with that. Where do myself and the Minister of State differ? The difference for me is that sitting county councillors are on the ground working in communities and they want to participate in this process. There is an established precedent for it in the Dublin Citizens' Assembly which was about options around a directly elected mayor for Dublin and was limited to that issue. It is right and respectful that we engage with the two local councillor associations: the Local Authorities Members Association, LAMA, and the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG. They have a valid, important and significant role to play in articulating the concerns of their members and could do so in a very positive way. They represent local communities too. They have a mandate to represent them and work closely within other social structures and with other agencies locally. They are members of the Minister of State's party, other political parties and none and I get the overwhelming sense that they want to be involved.

The simple proposal in my amendment is that we would permit four members of local authorities to participate. I am not talking about taking people out of the 100 members of the assembly. It could be in addition to them. I know something of the statutory background to this and understand that it is not beyond the Taoiseach or anyone else to decide to include additional people. I ask the Minister of State to correct me in her response if I am wrong in regard to the statutory basis for this. I ask the Minister of State, on behalf of councillors who are members of her party, other parties and none, if we can facilitate their participation in this assembly. It is really important that we do so. I am making a strong case for doing so and am asking the Minister of State to consider it. I am sure she understands the rationale for my request, which is not unreasonable.

I say all of this in the context of the erosion of the involvement of councillors in educational bodies, university panels and harbour companies, including the one in the Minister of State's constituency of Galway West. Through legislation passed over the past seven to ten years, we have eroded many of the functions, powers and responsibilities of elected members and they are not happy. The most recent example relates to university panels and the proposal to take councillors off them. This is just another layer of that.

The proposal before us today specifically excludes Oireachtas Members in the Dáil and Seanad. The Minister of State made a strong argument in favour of that principle and I fully support it. However, the proposal also excludes the elected members of local authorities and it is on their behalf that I make my case. What I am asking of this House is both reasonable and doable. Let us unite on this. Most of the Members of this House are elected by sitting councillors. We are receptive to and supportive of the idea of allowing them to participate. There may be some constraints but I do not believe that is the case. I would like to think we could unite in here and demonstrate that unity. It is not about one-upmanship but about us working together, representing this collective block of elected people and allowing them to take four seats at the assembly, either in addition to the 100 members or as part of the 100 members. I have no hard and fast rule in that regard and do not want to get into the micro-management of the thing. I suggest that LAMA and the AILG, the two representative bodies, could nominate two councillors each. All I want is to see them taking part. I want to articulate on behalf of councillors because that is what they have asked for. I am happy to share the correspondence with the Minister of State because it is convincing. I ask her to support us, and hopefully we can support one another, to allow members of our city and county councils to participate in this process.