For and against: Two councillors debate Town Council abolition

Changes are in best interest of people of Mayo


For
Phil Hogan
I believe the changes I announced recently to the local government sector are in the best interest of Mayo people. My focus has been on reforming the outdating structures and modernising the systems that will make local authorities more efficient and accountable to you.
I’ve updated the structures that have largely remained unchanged since Victorian times. The new system will be more streamlined. Yes, we will have 42 per cent less Councillors, but they will be better equipped to represent you. We will do away with the duplication and waste of separate town, borough and county councils. Every square inch of Mayo will be part of a Municipal District. Gone are the days where some small towns have their own town council, while larger towns don’t. Once you have elected your chosen representatives to the Municipal District, they will serve you both locally and at county level, making sure that your voice is heard not just in your town or hinterland, but even at county level, representing you inclusively and efficiently.
The new reforms will strengthen the role of local government with more decisions taken locally instead of nationally. For example, local authorities will take on new functions, and will have a dedicated unit that will focus on growing the local economy and on creating jobs in Mayo. This makes sense, since local authorities are already critical enablers of local economic development through many of their traditional functions, particularly planning, environment and infrastructure. Local enterprise offices will be new one-stop-shops which will give support to local businesses to help them realise their vision for the local economy.  After all, who knows better than the local people the strengths and opportunities in their community?
Now that homeowners are paying for local services, through the household charge, and property tax next year, I think they deserve the most efficient service possible. That is why local authorities will now operate more like a business. The county manager will be replaced by a chief executive and he/she will have to report to a board which will be made up of the people you elected. And there will be new checks and balances. New structures will mean that councils must have performance targets and set actions, and there will be a new independently chaired group of experts who will make sure services are being delivered as efficiently as possible to you, the customer.
We also need to make sure there is better communication. So, every local authority will now have new customer information systems and dedicated customer relations personnel.
There will also be a new website, www.fixmystreet.ie rolled out in Mayo. This will enable you to report road, lighting, environmental and other issues that requires a local authority response, and you will get that response within two working days. Local government must start talking directly to you, and listen to your needs. By communicating in a new and better way, in time, this will re-build confidence in the system that will put you first.
The strengthening of the role of local government will be an ongoing process. Over time local authorities will take on more functions and more responsibility, giving you a greater say in the running of your own county. The changes outlined will provide a sound basis on which to build further progress. Local government will be better positioned to take on these additional responsibilities and functions giving it greater influence in matters of funding and governance, and giving you, the citizen, a greater say in your own future.


One hundred years of self-determination will be wiped away

Against
Keith Martin
Westport is going to lose its right to govern itself.  A hundred years of self determination is about to be wiped away by the government and Westport voters who turned out in their thousands with turnout figures of over 65 per cent are to no longer elect a council to run their town.  Gone too will be the chain of office as only Castlebar will have a Mayor in future.  Westport will instead be governed by seven councillors, with, at most, two of those seven being from Westport itself.
Westport Town Council’s annual budget is €4.2 million which is spent in the town on projects like The Greenway, Tidy Towns, community buildings, parks, playgrounds, social housing, roads, paths, cycle lanes, community radio, tourism initiatives, community and amenity grants. The council also supports more than 50 festivals each year, as well as providing planning, water, sewerage, and street lighting among the many day to day services.
Westport’s budget of €4.2 million which used to be spent in the town will be paid to Castlebar and a sum reapportioned to the area’s Municipal Council, but with no guarantees that what goes in goes back to Westport. Nor is there any guarantee that Westport’s €4.2 million will be spent in the town either. Ratepayers and payers of the Household Charge will see their money being spent anywhere from Leenane to Blacksod Bay.
Here in Mayo we have one councillor for every 2,200.  That will now jump to one for every 4,800. The salary of a Westport Town Councillor is €4,400 before tax and the total expenditure on town councillors amounts to less than one per cent of a town council’s budget. Of the €420 million in savings of this reform programme just €6 million will result from the abolition of 75 councils and 700 councillors. That’s an average of just €80,000 per council.  The majority of the savings are coming from 500 redundancies, cost saving measures and cut backs which could take place without abolishing the town councils.
Ireland has the second lowest level of councillor representation in the EU. We have one councillor per 2,336 people. In France it’s one per 118 and only the UK with, 1 per 2,600, is higher. Minister Hogan is now proposing a ratio of one councillor per 4,800 people to make Ireland the most under-represented country in the EU.
The majority of the 75 councils are located in rural Ireland where they provide civic leadership and investment as well as acting as lobbying bodies for their areas. The wiping off the map of these councils is yet another attack on rural Ireland and a silencing of local democracy on a scale never before seen in this country.
The reform of local government, which claims to put people first, is simply a huge cut back in local democracy, cuts which fly in the face of both Fine Gael’s and the Labour Party’s policies of strengthening local government, cuts which reverse the EU policy of subsidiarity, which was enshrined by the Lisbon Treaty.
I now call on town councillors of all political parties to resist and protest against this destruction of local government. Citizens of Westport should contact their local TD’s and ask them to ensure that their council will not be abolished.