Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 218: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason he decided not to increase the number of councillors in Fingal County Council in view of the unusually high ratio of councillors to population for a county council; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13743/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The number of elected members in each local authority is set out in section 21 and schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 2001. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to publish a Green Paper on Local Government Reform, which will examine a number of issues in relation to the organisation of local government. The Green Paper will be published shortly; a White Paper on Local Government Reform will follow. As part of this reform process I will give consideration to those parts of the Local Government Act 2001 which have not yet been commenced, including section 22 which provides for the alteration of the number of members of a local authority.

I have established two Committees to review local electoral areas and to report to me not later than 20 June 2008. The Committees are to review the ratio of population to elected members in each local electoral area with a view to ensuring a reasonable relationship between the current population and representation within each local authority. For this purpose, and in keeping with the current legislative position, the Committees are to assume no change in the total membership of each local authority. I will consider the Committees' reports as the basis for a revision of the local electoral areas for use at the local elections to be held in 2009.