Hyland calls for Newport, Westport and Louisburgh ‘borough’ in Seanad

A WESTPORT county councillor has called for a ‘borough’ to be created between Westport, Newport and Louisburgh in an address to Seanad Éireann.

Cllr Hyland wants the existing Westport-Belmullet Municipal district – which stretches from Westport to Belmullet – to be abolished in place of an area consisting of the three West Mayo towns.

The Independent councillor said that this council would be run as a rating authority in the manner of the former Westport Town Council.

In his address. to a Seanad Public Consultation Committee on the Future of Local Democracy, Cllr Hyland said that he was often asked to vote on issues concerning Achill and Belmullet with which he was ‘not aware of at all’.

“We would have Newport, Westport, Louisburgh as a borough council. We would be a rating authority and we would be the architects of our own future. The decision making would be close to the people,” Cllr Hyland said.

Cllr Hyland doubled down on his criticism of the ‘diabolical’ abolition of town councils in 2014 under the Fine Gael-Labour coalition. He also cited a recent Council of Europe report which ranked Ireland just above Moldova, Hungary and the Russian Federation for the autonomy of its local government.

The report by The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (CLRAE) described Ireland as ‘one of the most centralised countries in Europe’.

The country was found to be compliant in eight out of 20 principles of the European Charter of Local Self Government. 

‘Broken system’

“WE have a broken system. Did we need the Council of Europe to tell us that we had a broken system?” Cllr Hyland said.

He also warned there would be further disengagement from the public if local democracy was not reformed.

“The people now feel completely removed from local government, and from decision making, and from their councils. That’s the way they feel at the moment,” he said.

Ballina Municipal District councillors Mark Duffy (Independent), Annie May Reape (Fianna Fáil) and Jarlath Munnelly (Fine Gael) and Michael Loftus (Fianna Fáil) also attended the hearing as part of a delegation from Mayo County Council. 

Cllr Loftus voice 'serious concern' regarding the reduction of county councils' powers since local government reforms in 2014. 

"With the reduction of councillors and local authorities, down from 114 local authorities down to the 31, and the reduction in councillors from 1627 down to 949, we were told at the stage in 2014 that we would get a lot more powers to deal with issues. But this is not the way it has happened," said Cllr Loftus, who is currently Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council. 

"It seems to be today that most of the powers are with the Chief Executive, and that includes funding as well."

The Crossmolina-based councillor called for local authorities to be given more powers regarding planning and budgeting, as well as more staff. 

He also called for an increase in pay for county councillors to reflect the 'full-time' nature of their work. 

Echoing sentiments from Cllr Loftus, Cllr Munnelly proposed that local area councils should be given more powers relating to budgeting and taxation.

Under his proposals, local area councils to have 50 percent more elected representatives and be headed by a director, a senior engineer and a senior executive officer.

Cllr Reape said that the authority of local government had been 'seriously eroded', adding that council officials are no longer 'taking cognisance of what councillors are saying'.

Her fellow Ballina-based county councillor Mark Duffy echoed calls for the return of town councils, lamenting the lack of financial autonomy for each local area.

Cllr Duffy also suggested age quotas and gender quotas for each council to 'guarantee that we have fresh thinking and new ideas'.