Rebalancing responsibilities between local and national government

A chara, – I am not opposed to Ciaran O’Mara’s suggestion (Letters, August 29th) that we look to set a maximum number of TDs, given the continued growth in our population. This would require a constitutional change. However, I do not believe that we should make this change without a significant rebalancing of responsibilities between local and national government. We have the most centralised system of decision making of almost any democracy and this means that much time is taken up in the Oireachtas debating issues that in other jurisdictions would be addressed by local and regional authorities.

We also have far, far fewer local councillors per capita than any other democracy. To serve a population of almost 5.3 million people, we have just 949 councillors, or one for about every 5,585 people. In the Netherlands, they have one councillor for every 2,060 citizens and local councillors there have far more powers. Denmark has one councillor for every 2,399 people, while for Finland, the ratio is one for every 627. We would have far better scrutiny of national legislation and policy debates in the Oireachtas if we increased the number of local councillors and empowered them to address issues in our communities. If we did that, then limiting the number of national politicians would be a logical next step. – Is mise,

Senator MALCOLM BYRNE,

Fianna Fáil,