Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and I wish him well in his job. I have not seen him since his appointment. It is in everyone’s interest that he is successful. I have a couple of observations. I agree with Senator Fitzpatrick that councillors are on the front line. They have their fingers on the pulse of various events and issues that flare up in every constituency. Often, they are the link to the local authority. My local council is Dublin City Council, DCC, and I see the connection between the local councillors and management. In the past four or five years, however, the relationship between councillors and the management in DCC has become increasingly poor. Morale on the council is increasingly poor. As has been said, the money councillors are paid needs to be increased for the hours they put in. While the figure of 32 and a half hours was given, I believe a huge number of councillors do a lot more. It is not a nine-to-five job; they are on call 24-7. They do not get rewarded enough for that.

A few councillors have spoken to me about the morale in DCC and made the point that the housing section of the council is not responding to them. The atmosphere and culture within the staff management is increasingly poor. In fact, one councillor emailed the housing allocations section of DCC a number of times and it has been three weeks since a response was received. Equally, councillors have concerns in respect of the traffic management changes throughout the city. The most recent change is the no-left turn onto Pearse Street, which is causing a lot of difficulty and concerns for people. In the run-up to that change, the management had almost no engagement with local councillors or meetings with residents. They would not facilitate any information meetings with residents.

It is poor that councillors are being treated with disdain. They are the cornerstone of democracy and their role is important. Despite this, in DCC the relationship between councillors and management is increasingly poor. I am not sure if that is the case in all local authorities. While the management says it is a resourcing issue and that it does not have the staff, the staff say it is a management issue. Whatever the reasons are, it must improve. A constituent of one councillor, who also contacted me, had to wait eight weeks to meet a housing adviser. That individual could have been homeless at that stage. It is just not acceptable. While it is not clear whether it is resources, bad management or bad work practice, whatever the reasons are, it is the Minister of State’s job to ensure local authorities work well and respond to the local councillors. They give everything for their local communities. It is very deflating when they are treated so poorly by the management in local authorities. I presume that contributes to a lot of people deciding not to run again in elections. It is about respecting councillors and ensuring that management engages with councillors in a real, genuine and meaningful way rather than just railroading them, which seems to be happening more frequently.