Victor Boyhan urges task force to strengthen local government

Minister, you are very, very welcome to the House. I am not going to reiterate what others said about your own experience in local government. By the way, it is 6-4. I am sharing time with my colleague, if that is agreeable to the House. 6-4. Okay, thank you. So, look, ultimately, as I say, Minister, that local government remains underutilised, under-resourced and under-financed, and hopefully the task force will recommend the devolution of more powers, more supports and more functions to local councils and their elected representatives. I want to thank you, Minister. Now, before I throw you outside, I want to thank the entire committee that worked on the Sianet, including you, Kerr Herlock, but the entire committee that gave an awful lot of time to bring up this report, which was the Sianet Publication Committee, and I do not think we gave it enough debate. We did not examine it enough in detail, considering the amount of work, but we are doing it now, and I want to welcome the fact there is going to be a task force established, but I also want to thank the Oireachtas Library and Research. Their work is impeccable, and what they did was they produced, we had a scoping report exercise, and we asked them to come up, and they came up with this look, I recommend everyone get a copy of this before they leave the House today, local government functions, and they reviewed them from 1993 to 2024, because we needed to ascertain issues around facts first, and about how many powers have been taken back, I think in part eight, and how central government has more and more dragged back in certain powers. I recommend the reading, because it is highly resourced, and it is factual, and it is full of integrity, and everyone should read it. And of course, they touched on a key measure, which I hope this task force will touch on, which is in relation to the sources of income. So we know there are four key sources of income to local government. There are government grants and subsidies, their goods and services, their commercial rates, and their local property tax. And we need to look at that again, because at the end of the day, if we don't address finance in local government, we are going nowhere. So what I hope this task force will do, it will implement or seek again to look at the 25 recommendations that this report made. No point in revolving the wheel here, because I think that's really important. I also want to thank the AILG and LAMA, and the various reports that you mentioned, Minister, because I think they were important. I think it is worth just saying that there were a number of issues. I'm an advocate for all councillors, but I'm particularly an advocate for independent councillors. And I want to remind you, Minister, not that you need a reminder, that there are 193 independent councillors serving in local government. They do not have party headquarters. They do not have the same resources as other people have. And I hope that will be reflected. And their membership, in terms of local authorities, will be reflected in the task force. I don't know, but I've had suggestions and rumours to some of the people that may be on it. So I hope that it will be an open and transparent process. I would strongly recommend people of experience, like Noel Dempsey, one of the most reforming ministers we ever had in local government in my lifetime. But I'd like to consider senators in this house that have vast experience in local government, or senators who made a huge input in relation to the committee. I think it's important and I flagged some issues because of time running out. I'd like to have a look at the following issues of the task force. The full implementation of the Moorhead report. Improved remuneration for all of our councillors. Ending the 20-year cut-off date for gratuity. The possibility of a pension for our councillors. Increased vouched expenses. Increased vouched expenses I'm advocating for. Expand the capacity of local government to deliver efficient services. You will be aware of the constitution provisions under section 28A of the constitution. And I think that's an important factor that should be borne in mind by the task force. Councillors have ultimately an electoral mandate. So I would ask that the task force would look at a number of issues because I think they're important. I would ask them to look at the AILG and the Lama reports. I would ask them to look at the auditing parts of local authorities. Proper accountancy and accountability of auditors. I've heard of council meetings where they've dealt with auditors reports in five minutes. The manager said there's nothing to worry about lads. Move on. And rubber stamping. That can't happen. I'm calling for a separate audit committee every year to review publicly the auditor's recommendations. Reform of the JPCs. I had a letter today. Actually, a matter of fact, I received from the Conduct Tribune this morning, published the 26th. Government has been slammed for making a mess of the rolling out of the joint policing committees. And little progress has been made. And a number of councillors are cited in it. I'll send you a copy of it. The Part 8, derogation, we need to look at that. Security allowances for our councillors. And I understand from a commencement matter last week, in the name of one of your colleagues, that you're looking at that, Minister, and I think that's good. But I want to say, if we can make a case for security allowances for TDs, we'll make a case for the same as whatever. So I think, Minister, there are many, many issues. I hope some of us in this House, with experience, will be considered eligible and with knowledge to make a contribution to the taskforce. I think it's an important one. And finally, I want you to look again at the municipal districts and the area committees, and many of these don't have funding. In Dublin, for instance, City and County, we have area committees. We don't have municipal districts. So I'll finish on that. I welcome the fact you're here. I would ask one other thing, that you might look at Minister Barry Troy's draft local authority administration bill that fell, but I think it was a good bill. There were many aspects to it, and you might have a look at that. I now hand you over to my colleague, Senator Conway.