Fianna Fail has 671 county, city and town councillors, yet 1,000 are due to turn up at the massive one-day Councillors' Conference 2000 in Malahide next Friday. The letter to all public representatives from Bertie Ahern enthused about the successful local election campaign last year and the new phase of reforming legislation on the way. The programme lists Ahern, general secretary Martin Mackin and ministers Noel Dempsey, Charlie McCreevy and Mary O'Rourke as speakers. Subjects include media relations and e-politics and there's a casino night to follow.
What the promo literature doesn't mention, of course, is that there is likely to be a row over the Local Government Reform Bill and mutterings among the younger councillors, who have their own forum, about the sins of the fathers.
Dempsey wants to end the dual mandate (Oireachtas and council) and institute directly-elected mayors and council chairpersons. Councillors vigorously oppose both, because of the danger of celebrity candidates winning the day and the ending of the normal divvi-up of spoils among the parties. At a meeting in Sligo last week a motion calling on the Minister for the Environment to delete the provision for directly-elected chairpersons in his new bill was narrowly deferred on the grounds of seeking more information. The issue will raise its head again on July 6th at a unique seminar in Tralee where the General Council of County Councils, the Association of Municipal Authorities and the Local Authority Members Association meet.