Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

Essentially, a system of local government that is citizen-friendly is needed. For too long, Ireland has had a system that has essentially turned public representatives into middlemen and women who do their constituents' bidding. This particular system worked very well for decades, for example, for the party which has introduced this Bill. For as long as people believe they require a broker and are unable to do something themselves, one has positioned the public representative in such a way as to have in place a clientelist system that is the least citizen-friendly system it is possible to have.

While I am in favour of people being responded to in a timely and appropriate fashion, certain points must be recognised. One must recognise that much of our system is threadbare and lopsided. I published a short document on public service reform from which I will provide some small examples of the lopsided and threadbare nature of the system. Areas that have expanded rapidly in recent years have a very different profile from counties that have a reasonably static population and where the pace of development has grown slowly over decades. For example, the area encompassed by Mayo County Council which has a staff of 1,100 has a population of 130,000, while the area encompassed by Kildare County Council which has a staff of 925 has a population of 209,000. One cannot expect equality of service if there is inequality in the number of staff available to provide such services. The worst staffed county council is Meath County Council, also within the commuter belt, which has half the staff complement and 30,000 more people than its equivalent in County Mayo.

I again make the point that services are lopsided and neither the early retirement scheme nor the recruitment embargo is targeted or nuanced to deal with this. In other words, it is possible that half the staff of Meath County Council will seek early retirement, while all the staff of Kerry County Council will remain. Such outcomes will not lead to the possibility of having equality of service. Ireland's local government system was designed in the 19th century. I note that in respect of many of our institutional systems we are not very good at building things, be they buildings or the architecture that should go with institutions. Essentially, we tweak rather than fundamentally reform them. I seek fundamental reform of the local government system.

As for the detail of the Bill, there are areas within the local government system in which there is a legal requirement to give responses within targeted timelines. For example, in the planning system, there is a legal requirement whereby one must receive a response within a certain timeframe in respect of unauthorised developments. However, even this requirement is highly unsatisfactory because matters can get bogged down in queues in the courts. There are ways of doing things whereby information can be placed publicly on a website, on which people will be able to find the requisite information. In other words, while not everyone must be responded to, a range of information is available with a number that people can look up. This facilitates people to work smarter and helps to avoid staff getting bogged down in giving replies to the effect that something would be desirable. Incidentally, having been elected to a local authority, it took me six months to discover what it meant when I received a response from the county engineer stating it would be desirable to do whatever I had sought in respect of roads and so on. I asked what the word "desirable" meant in this context and discovered that in the lexicon of the county council it meant the official giving the response would like to do whatever was being sought but lacked the money to so do. I do not want such replies because they mislead.

Similarly, 7,000 people, individuals or families, are on the housing waiting list in County Kildare. I could spend every hour of the day every day of the week engaged in writing on their behalf and receiving the same reply to the effect that the person concerned will be considered in conjunction with all the other applicants. I could cite the three paragraphs that typically emanate from my local authority and all others. What needs to happen instead is that we need to put in place a process to develop a system under which people can be housed. Obviously, Ireland is in dire straits and I acknowledge that this is a separate issue, but there is a mismatch between houses that are in NAMA and the number of people in rented accommodation. In this context and with respect, I do not welcome stunts like FixMyStreet.ie. For example, in 2007 Kildare County Council had €28 million to spend on roads and footpaths, while this year it has €10 million. As it was unable to do all the things that needed to be done when it had €28 million available to it, one should not give the impression that something can be done when realistically it cannot because that simply is conning people. Moreover, it gives the impression that people are not doing their job and are wasting money when that is not always the case.

I am all in favour of getting value for money in local government and other systems and believe radical reform of the local government system is needed. I would phase out the county council system and have no problem in suggesting Ireland needs perhaps three large regional authorities - we do not need to be looking at four provinces. Such regional authorities would have the potential to make procurement savings, could do things from a strategic point of view and link issues such as land use and transportation planning. In such a scenario, one would devolve a range of powers from the Oireachtas to the areas in which such services are actually delivered. However, I am also in favour of having a district council model to underpin this reform, in which communities would be assisted to shape the place in which they are living and in which there is a good interface between the citizen and the local authority. The members of that authority would represent an area to which they had committed, in which they were living, which they wished to shape and in which they wished to be involved.

I have been a member of both a town council and a county council. The former was the most recent such council established in the State. Only four such councils have been established in the history of the State, all of which originated as town commissioners and consequently were at the lower level in respect of responsibility. As a town council, we were able to get a lot done as a community facilitator. Incidentally, one will not save anything by abolishing some of the aforementioned town councils because they are funded by a town charge. However, if the interface between the local authority and the community is working, one can do things to deliver in shaping the place in which people live and use the concept of voluntarism in all communities, which is one of Ireland's real highlights.

Our institutions, including our political institutions, let us down because they are not matched against the kind of society we are. Consequently, we could put our best foot forward through major reform. I do not oppose the Bill.

I am concerned with regard to the additional obligations being imposed on the Ombudsman. I am also concerned with people being under the impression that they can get things done simply as a result of their being sent letters. We need to engage in a much more fundamental reform of the local government system.

See this speech in context