Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 910: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he intends in 2006 to issue regulations under the Local Government Act 2001, to allow, by order, the establishment of new town councils. [11074/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Part 17 of the Local Government Act 2001 provides that qualified electors of a town having a population of at least 7,500 as ascertained at the last preceding census and not having a town council may make a proposal for the establishment of such a council. Under the relevant provisions of the Act, a proposal to establish a town council, and the timing of any such proposal, is a matter for the local community in the first instance, with a decision on such a proposal being a reserved function of the relevant county council, following a public consultation process. I am considering the steps necessary to commence the relevant provisions of the 2001 Act and I have initiated consultation with local government interests in regard to the creation of new town councils and their prospective functional responsibilities under the Act.