The programme for Government states: Local Government is the beating heart of our democracy. It is responsible for many of the essential services on which we depend – housing, local roads, planning [and many other things]." I wish to talk about my experience of over 20 years as a local councillor before I came here and how the powers of the councillor have been diminished. First is planning. In 2004, I could and did make changes that made a real difference to help rural planning. In 2022, I was told that they must comply with national planning guidelines, so my changes were not allowed. In the 2022 Wicklow development plan, we dezoned vast areas of land because of the Planning Regulator's guidelines. These were based on the outdated 2016 census. We knew we had a housing shortage. At the time, I pointed out how crazy this was but nobody was listening to us councillors at the time. At one stage, the Planning Regulator told us that we could not zone for four houses in a town of 2,000 people. In addition, the section 140 powers for councillors covering planning were abolished. Housing bodies have taken over much of social housing. They are not accountable to public representatives. As they do not have to sit before councillors at a monthly meeting, the democratic input is further reduced. Water and wastewater are completely outsourced. Again, the responsible body is not accountable before councillors on a monthly basis or through a strategic policy committee, SPC. The number of councillors has reduced from 1,627 to 949 after the changes in 2014. This is one of the lowest per capita representations in the whole of Europe. The only significant funding income for current expenditure comes from commercial rates and property tax. All other funding must come from central government. This further limits councillors' powers. The property tax was supposed to bring extra funding to the local authorities but all that happened was that it reduced Government grants. Some councils still do not retain all of the property tax collected and this needs to be addressed as it is simply unfair. I ask that we consider using the taxes that are very much local based, for example, motor tax, the residential zoned land tax and the new derelict property tax. I understand the local democracy task force met six times and will produce a report in February. I hope it will recommend many of the points in the Seanad report on local democracy of October 2024. I urge the Minister and all of his colleagues to support these recommendations.

Sentiment score: 0.05

I appreciate that the Minister understands and that he has been there. I repeat that powers are far too centralised in this country. We all know the word "subsidiarity". The programme for Government supports it, and it is stated in it, but we do not apply it to councils. They have the local knowledge and must be allowed more autonomy in decision-making. In addition to this, communication between Departments and local authorities must be improved. At the beginning of last year, I asked in the Dáil that the Minister give local authorities housing targets and that every quarter he would meet, on a formal basis, with the CEOs and directors of planning of the councils and that he would monitor these targets monthly. This must happen. It is too important not to happen. This will lead to hard questions being asked of the councils and also hard questions being asked of the Departments. Similarly, more communication needs to happen with county councillors. There are six times as many county councillors as TDs and we need to use this resource. The voices of the people who elect councillors are not being heard. The centralised decision-making process undermines our democracy.

Sentiment score: 0.05