Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I welcome the progress towards the local democracy task force. My party has long called for more power to be given back to our local elected members. Ireland has the most centralised system of local government in Europe, with limited democratic decision-making powers and insufficient funding and resources for local authorities. While the EU average for tax revenue spent at local level is 23%, in Ireland it is just 8%. Our overly centralised system means far too many decisions are being made by unelected officials. Local councillors are often the backbone of their communities and should be able to reflect the reality on the ground in policy and action.

There has been talk of creating this task force for many years and the lack of progress is very frustrating. Unfortunately, recommendations of the committee have already not been acted upon. It is four months since the Government was established and it was recommended that the task force be up and running within three. Therefore, it is behind and the Government must really put more focus on progressing it once and for all.

We are concerned that the Government proposal focuses only on rebalancing power between the executive and the elected members. The reality is that autonomy has been stripped away from our local authorities and placed back with central government. That imbalance must also be addressed. We encourage the Government to consider this in drafting the terms of reference for the task force.

We also need to ensure membership is fair and balanced so everybody is and feels properly represented. An all-Ireland approach should be taken as we continue planning for and building towards unity. The results of the task force could be long lasting, so it would be good to see thought put into it.

Town councils must be a key focus of the task force. A clear timeline must be produced for their reintroduction. They were an important cornerstone of local democracy that was ripped away by Fine Gael. Citizens, trade unions, local businesses and business associations have been calling for the restoration of town councils. While the town councils of old were not perfect, the solution should have been to reform and rebuild local democracy at town level, not just demolish it. Alongside this, the task force must examine the burden of work undertaken by councillors and the need to consider paying councillors a full-time wage. The Oireachtas has found that councillors spend an average of 32.5 hours working on council work each week. Sinn Féin wants to see greater accountability in local councils. There needs to be a thorough review of local government with a view to increasing powers and responsibilities of both the elected councillors and those who elect them.

We believe local authorities must be reformed. Accountability and transparency must be at the core of what they do. People must be able to access information and we must work to remove the barriers that prevent them from doing so.

The election of the directly elected mayor in Limerick represented good progress, and we need to look at rolling it out further in other cities. In particular, a directly elected mayor of Dublin must be part of the package of reforms that devolve powers from the centre to local government, giving communities more say in how the capital city is run. This would be a big boost for local democracy. The task force needs to focus on real, meaningful ways of decentralising local democracy.