Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is a timely time to have a debate on local government as we face into local elections in May or June of 2024. There are many aspects to local government and there have been many changes in local government in the past 20 or 30 years. As someone who was a member of a local authority for 25 years, until the dual mandate came in, I have seen a lot of changes. When I started first as a local councillor, we had responsibility for housing, loans, roads, planning - you name it. Just before my time local authorities also looked after health within the county boundaries.

That has changed completely to a very small role for local authority members. It is a very important role but a very small role, mainly in adopting a county development plan. That is the biggest role they have, as well as adopting an annual budget. You have to look back and see how efficient local authorities are. In my view, they are not that efficient at all. They should be more efficient and this is an area that should be looked at. The public deserve an efficient service from local authorities. When I was a town councillor, the local authority in Bradford or some place in England adopted a resolution that it be run like a business. It was a real model. I do not know what has happened since. That was 20 years ago. They decided to run it like a business and if a person went in he or she got an answer there and then. If members of the public went in about something, whether it was housing, local government, roads or planning, they got an answer there and then or if they did not, the council strove to give them an answer straight away. At least they met somebody. The efficiency of our local authority system is an area the Government has to look at. Councillors tell me they are frustrated trying to address issues, no more than we are as Oireachtas Members. You can only presume what it is like for the ordinary members of the public who go in there or ring looking for something to be done or looking for answers.

In the past week, the chief planning regulator met with Fine Gael Senators. I see he has since met with Oireachtas Members. It was a very useful meeting. There are areas in the county development plan where he says councillors have a lot more power. A lot more can be put into the county development plan than is being put in or that councillors know what is to be put in. There is a real need for education through seminars or whatever. He said he had met with and given seminars to some local authority members. This should be done while the county development plan is being put together. There are specific things that can be put in. The county managers try to keep councillors in the dark. They have a role to play here in educating councillors and telling them what can and cannot be put in. We have seen this with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, cutting down on the amount of land that has been zoned. Land has been dezoned in lots of areas where they do not want too much land zoned. Land has been dezoned in Mayo. Maybe that is a good thing and maybe it is a bad thing.

Even if that is done, there should be an easy system whereby there can be a variation of the county development plan. I always felt that the variation of a county development plan could be brought forward only by the manager, or the CEO as he is known now. That was a grey area when we questioned the regulator on this. He was of the view that councillors could pressure the manager into bringing one forward where there is a good proposal. I am not saying it should be done for every proposal but where there was a good proposal that made sense, where all the services and everything are provided, a variation could take place. Managers are reluctant to bring forward variations. If it is the case that councillors have the power to do that or to bring that pressure, that is an area they do not know about and that we do not know about either. It is an area that should be explored. The Minister's office should put in place stipulations to say something can or cannot be done. There is a need for education and it is an area about which I would like to talk more.

The Acting Chairperson is looking at me. There are a lot more issues I had down here to talk about but I am obviously not going to get a chance to do that. I welcome the debate and I know the Minister of State will take on board a lot of the things that are said here.