Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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623. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the cost of restoring town councils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46091/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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625. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the annual savings from the abolition of town councils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46093/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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656. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to provide cost estimates for restoring all of the town and borough councils that were abolished. [46292/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 623, 625 and 656 together.

The Government’s decision to replace town authorities with a new model of municipal governance was designed to strengthen local government within counties and to address widely acknowledged and long-standing weaknesses and anomalies in the previous system, including divided administration between town and county authorities, for example, in relation to matters such as planning, rating and charges.

Municipal districts now cover the entire territory of each county, removing outdated boundaries and ending the anomaly of small towns having municipal status and dual representation, while some larger centres and rural areas lacked any sub-county governance. As well as creating a more rational and comprehensive structural arrangement, the new system enables more effective and community-focused decision making. There is also a more appropriate assignment of reserved functions, full integration of local authority resources across each county and elimination of duplication both in administrative and electoral terms.

Regarding savings, it is important to recognise that 2015 is the first full year of the operation of the new structures. I initiated an operational review earlier this year in relation to the new arrangements to assess how they are impacting in relation to both non-financial and financial matters. In this regard, it is important to view the benefits not only in terms of expenditure reductions but also having regard to the broader objectives of local government reform such as strengthening the sector and seeking greater efficiency and more productive use of resources previously taken up with multiple corporate processes.

The operational review involves an Advisory Group, on which both elected members and local authority chief executives are represented, together with a Local Government Forum for engagement with the Association of Irish Local Government. To date, these groups have met on six occasions in total and the feedback thus far from these deliberations suggests that the revised structures are generally operating well but will need more time to bed down fully. Importantly, there has also been an acknowledgement that there would be no return to the structures in place prior to June 2014, a view which corresponds with my stated position that the re-introduction of the pre-reform configuration of town councils would not be the correct approach. Accordingly, costings of any restoration of such structures are not being undertaken.