Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Independent Group for tabling this motion. We have very many large challenges in the next 30 to 50 years, including decarbonisation of our country. There are large challenges in the areas of climate; moving away from car allocation and towards more active transport; housing, including catching up on housing that has not been built over the past decade; large-scale developments and infrastructure such as wind farms; and planning. These are all areas where local democracy should have a key role.

Our system of governance, however, at a local level, a regional level and even a central government level, does not work. It leads to endless frustration and endless delay and no one agency or person taking responsibility. Most things have to go back and be assigned as the responsibility of another Government Department or a centralised public service. That is the nub of the issue. Democracy does not work because it is centralised not just within our democratic structures but also within our governmental structures by the permanent Civil Service and the Government. We inherited our system of local democracy from the British. We need to look at best practice as regards local and regional democracy around Europe rather than an old feudal system.

Even within councils, there is a move to centralise more power. Since I first became a councillor in 2009, when very scant powers were allocated to councillors, those powers have been rolled back. We need to make sure that decisions are made at a more local level. That also includes things like upskilling local councillors in our regional government system. I think people in Ireland would like to see that because when the citizens' assembly for Dublin sat down and looked at what the Dublin mayor should cover, its members essentially came up with the areas that would be a good basis for regional devolution. They said a Dublin mayor should have responsibility for housing, homelessness, community healthcare, transport, the environment and the emergency services. We are trying to get to grips with that on the housing committee because it is not specified, and often the Government does not have control over those services, but that is indicative of what people would like to see within their own control and within the control of local democracy.

I ask that a couple of things happen on disposal of this motion. The Planning and Development Bill is a very dense document; it is over 700 pages long. Some local authority members simply do not have the time or the resources to go through that Bill in detail, and it will have a significant impact on how they work. I ask that the Minister of State's Department roll out training for local councillors on the Bill and get feedback from them at this stage of it. I also ask that Government Senators support our amendments in the area of community safety partnerships because the joint committees on local policing do work. Not only do they work in terms of the meetings they have, but they build up essential contacts between local councillors and gardaí to be able to have off-the-record conversations. That is what will be impacted when we do not have as many councillors on those joint policing committees.

Finally, I wish to raise the issue of the lump-sum payment for people retiring from local authorities. To be fair, the Government delivered on a negotiation and a higher salary for local councillors, but if it were calculated in the same way the new pension arrangements for public servants were calculated, it should be much higher than it is. I ask the Minister of State to ask his Department not just to look at that but also to ask that it apply to people retiring before the 2024 election and not just the 2020 election.