Garret Kelleher (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the involvement of the local authority representative associations, including the AILG, of which I was a member for the entire duration of my time as a councillor, as was my colleague beside me Senator Brady and our colleague Councillor Anna Grainger, who is in the Gallery. The AILG does great work in representing councillors.It is also true to say that the Association of Irish Local Government has three of the 14 representatives on the local democracy task force and that LAMA, which is represented here by Councillor Malone this evening, has two representatives of the 14. It would be entirely undemocratic of us to disregard the work of the task force and to try to circumvent it by arriving at our own conclusion which, unlike the Minister of State, I view as being a little bit opportunistic. The proposal for a timed amendment is entirely appropriate. It is not, as many Senators describe it, kicking the can down the road. It is affording the local democracy task force an opportunity to arrive at conclusions, to reflect on them and then to legislate in an appropriate manner, not to second-guess the outcome because that is entirely premature. That is a key point, one which the Minister of State addressed in his remarks.

What we want to see achieved here is delivery. We want to see improved local democracy as a result of the outcomes of the task force. We want to see more powers, funding, greater autonomy and improved conditions for councillors. We also want to see progress on pensions, which was alluded to, in addition to improved access to legal and technical support and advice as well as the pay and non-pay supports for councillors. Ultimately, by improving local democracy in this country, it is the citizens who will benefit. That is what we need to achieve.