Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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110. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to introduce legislation to restore the former Drogheda borough council and the Dundalk and Ardee urban district councils in County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12404/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government includes the preparation of a report for Government and the Oireachtas by mid-2017 on potential measures to boost local government leadership and accountability and to ensure that local government funding, structures and responsibilities strengthen local democracy, including the issue of town or borough council status. 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 and borough districts, where they arise, now cover the entire territory of each county, reflecting European norms, removing outdated boundaries and ending the anomaly of small towns having municipal status and dual representation, while some larger centres and rural areas lacked any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 will, over time, result in more effective and community-focused decision making and implementation. Moreover, under the new arrangements, there is full integration of local authority resources across each county and elimination of duplication both in administrative and electoral terms.

In 2015, a broadly based Advisory Group was convened to carry out a review of the operation of the revised local government structures, in conjunction with a Local Government Forum for engagement with the Association of Irish Local Government. Feedback from these deliberations and the results of surveys of local authority members and chief executives, indicate that the revised structures are generally operating well but will need more time to bed down fully. The results of this operational review will provide a key input to inform the consideration of issues pursuant to the Programme for a Partnership Government.