Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. Along with our spokesperson on housing and planning, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, our local government spokesperson, Deputy Shane Cassells, and my Seanad colleagues, I will ask to meet the Minister and the author of the report to put forward our case. As outlined, it is about terms and conditions, but the reform element is important because if we continue to take powers away from local authority members, the number of people who put themselves forward will diminish and this will affect local government.

It goes back to the original point that the terms and conditions are simply not adequate. The Minister of State pointed out that he was examining proposals other than those relating to terms and conditions to assist councillors in their duties and we look forward to hearing them. However, I believe they need to be more generous and they must not looking at historical problems but at the future problems of getting people to run for local government.

I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing this debate. I know of his huge interest in it, having served on a local authority. It is important that we continue to raise this issue. I note the answer refers to the end of May. I assume the Minister of State will have 48 hours and, hopefully, a report should be published somewhere.It is not about expenditure but about local government and assisting local authority members in performing their duties in the next five years and for decades to come.

Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister of State to be brief. We are already over time, partly due to my interventions.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I am not sure I mentioned the end of May, but I certainly said "very soon". To be very clear, I spoke about the reforms to remuneration, but there is absolutely no intention to take away powers councillors have.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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The system of local democracy in Ireland is the worst in Europe.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I said no powers had been taken away. In fact, we are being very proactive in trying to give back powers. If the Senator had been here for most of the debate on the planning Bill last year, he would know that we gave back powers to councils. We have enhanced their powers because planning is a major function of councillors, among many others. I was first elected to sit on a council in 1999, 20 years ago, as a 21 year old. I watched councillors who did not always want to use powers they had, some of which have been eroded in the past 20 years. I am certainly a believer in giving councillors the powers they need to do their job. I ask all councillors, particularly new councillors, to use their powers and take them seriously and realise the opportunities they have. They are the directors of the companies that run their counties and have a lot of powers. I often hear councillors tell me that they do not have powers. I stress to the Senator that they have a lot of powers under legislation that they do not get to use very often, but they should use them. If they work collectively as a group, they will be able to do so. We will find ways to give them back more powers. That is why votes were held in three local authority areas on directly elected mayors to try to give back decision-making powers to local areas and drive that agenda. I think the Senator supported that process and we will continue with it. He can rest assured that we believe not only in councillors having powers but also in their using them responsibly.