Minister defends role of town councils

MINISTER FOR the Environment and Local Government John Gormley has rejected the proposal to abolish town councils, contained in the McCarthy report.

After a meeting with councillors in Kilkenny yesterday, Mr Gormley said “town councils serve us well” and that “there are other ways to save money”.

The McCarthy report had recommended the abolition of the 80 elected town councils throughout the State and the merger of some county councils.

However, Mr Gormley said he did “not favour” the “abolitionist approach”, which he believed would not “actually save a significant amount of money”.

He said decision-making at local level should continue and that the Government would, in fact, expand “representative democracy” by further developing the role of “regional authorities” under the new programme for government.

Eight regional authorities  were established in 1994 and Mr Gormley claimed that these bodies had not been “developed properly”.

The Minister, who is preparing a White Paper on local government reform, said it was his “intention to seek efficiencies” regarding expenses paid to councillors.

He acknowledged there had been “abuses in the past” regarding payments to councillors to attend conferences and said “we need to look at that”. He wanted to “ensure a fair approach” and did not wish to “curtail their [councillors] very real need to attend conferences”.

He added there would be “some cuts in allowances” announced in the forthcoming budget. A spokesman for the Minister later clarified that no cuts were envisaged in the salaries (known as “representational allowances”) paid to councillors.

However, Michael O’Brien, the chairman of Kilkenny County Council, said councillors were “braced” for cuts to their salaries and expenses in the forthcoming budget.

He was opposed to any such cuts as he feared that “we’ll shortly end up with local government run by people who have money”.

According to a spokeswoman for the local authority, county councillors receive an annual representational allowance of €17,543.76 in addition to “mileage, telephone and miscellaneous expenses”.

She said payments to attend conferences are claimed separately. As chairman (cathaoirleach) of the council, Mr O’Brien also receives an additional annual allowance of €34,082.88.

Members of Kilkenny Borough Council, by contrast, receive a lower annual representational allowance of €8,771.88 while the mayor, currently Malcolm Noonan of the Green Party, receives an annual “top-up payment” of €24,948.56. Borough councillors also receive expenses.

A spokesman for the Department of Local Government said the annual “representational allowances” for members of the State’s 80 town councils ranged from €2,401 for small towns such as Bagenalstown; €4,401 for medium-sized towns such as Ballina; and €8,802 for large towns such as Bray, Dundalk and Ennis.

Town councillors also receive expenses.