Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government as part of local government reform, if he will introduce the DeHon’t method of appointing councillors to chairs and to local authority committees. [54576/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I presume the question refers to the D'Hondt system, also known as the highest average method , for appointing Councillors to chairs and to local authority committees.

Part 7 of the Local Government Act 2001 makes provision for local authorities to establish committees including Strategic Policy Committees (SPCs). Guidance issued by my Department in relation to the involvement of Councillors on SPCs states that every County/City Councillor should, as a matter of equity and good practice, have the opportunity to serve on an SPC and that SPC Councillor membership should reflect the proportionality and the distribution of elected representation on the full Council. This guidance goes on to state that the allocation of SPC chairs should also reflect equitably the spread of elected representation on the Council. The purpose of these guidelines, which acknowledge the difficulty in legislating fully for such good will and practice , is to ensure that the various political and other interests represented on the full Council are treated fairly, and equitably represented in the SPC system.

In implementing the Action Programme for Effective Local Government – Putting People First, chairs of SPCs and the Corporate Policy Group (CPG) will continue to be filled pro-rata, based on the size of the relevant groups within the Council. Membership of the CPG will be extended to include leaders of party or other groupings (where these are not already members by virtue of being chairs of SPCs) to ensure that the strategic guidance of SPCs reflects the political balance of the Council. In view of the current arrangements and their continuance in implementing Putting People First, I do not propose to prescribe any methodology, including the D'Hondt method, which could have a negative impact in ensuring an equitable spread of elected representation on local authority committees and their chairs as between representatives of political parties and independent councillors . It is, however, open to any local authority to use the methodology where this would be compatible with the guidance detailed above.