Local councillors speak out about council reform

Chairperson of Tullamore town council Sinead Dooley said she is "half expecting" Environment, Community and Local Government Minister Phil Hogan to make an announcement regarding the future of local government when he appears as guest speaker this evening (Friday) at an Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI) conference in Cavan. Birr Town Cllr Michael Campbell has criticised any plans to scrap local councils, saying it would be a "stone hatchet mad" move, while Edenderry Town Council chair Jim Murrin said it would be "an awful disaster". Both Cllrs Dooley and Campbell said they would be prepared for a reduction in the number of councillors at town council level, however. Minister Hogan is due to propose reforms to the local government system in the near future, and he told the Seanad recently that changes to town councils are necessary. Last Sunday a national newspaper reported that reforms would see every town council in the country scrapped while reports on Monday suggested some town councils would be scrapped while others would see member numbers reduced. Department spokesperson John Whelan would only say this week that he could not speculate what might be in Minister Hogan's mind ahead of him bringing his proposals to government, but that he is due to do this shortly. Speaking at Athlone Institute of Technology this week Taoiseach Enda Kenny said no decisions have been made on the issue yet. Currently there are 80 town councils and 774 councillors across the state. Speaking on Thursday Cllr Sinead Dooley, who is both a town and county councillor, said town councils allow projects that likely would not otherwise come to fruition. "A lot of the projects we have done in Tullamore over the last ten years wouldn't have been viable if there wasn't a rating town council in the area," she said, mentioning the town swimming pool and proposed arts centre to name just two. She said town council work is "completely different" to county council work. "It's so local," she said. "You're living in the town, your children go to school in the area, you do your shopping there, you meet people face to face every day of the week. You're embedded into the community, and for that reason town councillors take their jobs very very personally." She also pointed out that four of Tullamore's nine councillors are also county councillors, and therefore do not take a town councillor payment. Cllr Dooley did say, however, that she "wouldn't have a difficulty in a reduction of numbers". She said nine councillors for the town gives a good mix of ages and gender, but if in the morning "they decided the magic number were six or four so be it. You'd have to cope with it". Current rumours suggest towns with a population of fewer than 7,500 people will no longer be entitled to a town council. Tullamore town council wouldn't be affected by any change in that case, but both Birr and Edenderry town councils would be in danger of losing out. Fine Gael councillor for Birr Michael Campbell said that while nobody knows what's to happen, Minister Hogan would be "stone hatchet mad if he abolished town councils". "It'd be like kicking himself in the shin," he said, asking who if not local councillors would do "the donkey work" for the next election. "He has come through the town council and local authority route himself, and he seems to be giving more power back locally," Cllr Campbell said. "What I wouldn't be surprised to see happening is town commissions would be in trouble. What you could see is an area council set up, or a reduction in representation. A reduction wouldn't bother me too much; I'd sooner have a reduction than an abolition. If Birr Town Council was abolished that'd be the death knell for Birr. We've done an awful lot of stuff in Birr on a miniscule budget so I'm keeping my fingers crossed he won't go that route." The councillor added that everything out there at the moment is "just speculation" and said he knows Minister Hogan as a man who doesn't give away much information until he has to. Meanwhile Edenderry Town Council, which has just town commission rather than town council status, could be in danger. "To me it's very worrying," Cllr Noel Cribbin said. "I think they're targeting the wrong end of the stick." Cllr Cribbin said the town councillors have brought many projects to completion, including the new Edenderry-Enfield Road and an ambulance service for the town. He added that none of the town councillors could say they're in it for the money, and in fact get approximately €1,200 each year. "If you're talking about saving money, you're not going to save a whole lot getting rid of town councillors," he said. He suggested larger urban councils be abolished instead, leaving smaller councils with smaller budgets in place. Chairperson of Edenderry town council Jim Murrin had a more radical suggestion, however. He suggested revisiting the idea of abolishing the senate. "What actually do they do?," he asked. "I'd love to see what they actually do, what their performance is for the money they're getting. I think they should be scrapped, not town councils. To get rid of the senate would easy pay for the town councils."