Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 22 Feb 2021

Thank you, Les Gaelic. Minister, thank you. I can't say that I'm not a little disappointed that the report in the mirror was clearly inaccurate and somebody leaked that report to them that Cabinet had already signed off on pay for councillors. I want to thank all of my colleagues in the Chamber today. The respectful way in which this debate was carried out stands testament to all of my colleagues. There's nobody here who has the corner on councillors' issues. All of us, I believe, are indebted to the councillors that elect us in some way or other to ensure that representations they make to us are brought to you, Minister, and to the government. And in that regard, I want to again recognise the AILG and LAMA. When I came into politics, I hadn't been a local authority member and I was always welcomed and treated with the utmost of respect when I went to AILG and LAMA meetings. I'm happy that Fine Gael withdrew its amendment, but I'm not happy that the issues that were in the amendment are not being dealt with straight away. Maternity leave, if we've learned nothing else from COVID-19, we have learned that we can use technology to get around the issues that impact young parents, not just mothers, mothers or fathers. And I think that's something, Minister, that you can look at as we move out of this pandemic. Ways in which, I mean, I saw it here in 2015, I think it was, a TD had had a baby and had to be in the chamber three days later because there was an important vote. And that's just totally unacceptable in this day and age that we do that. A great friend of mine from my teaching days in the Teachers Union of Ireland, a Fine Gael councillor, Donna Sheridan, brought up the point to me that when she goes to a council meeting, she has to take annual leave because she cannot get time off. That is totally unacceptable. She serves the public, as do many teachers, nurses and various sort of public servants. The very least we should do is make arrangements that they can attend their council meeting and if that can be done remotely, again, it would be great. Some of the non-pay issues, it's not all about pay and some of my colleagues made that point here today. There are things like, for example, there's huge diversions around the country in the technology that's made available to councillors. Some of them are provided with laptops and printers and others have computers that are so out of date, they're incapable of using technology like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Postage or prepaid envelopes. I was talking to a councillor the other week and I think it was 25 or 30 euros a week in postage. You know, a stamp is a euro and they are carrying out a public service. So, Minister, you might look at the provision of prepaid envelopes for them. Replacement mobile phones. Again, technology is moving on all the time and we need to keep abreast of technology for the sake of councillors. The travel, I think one of my colleagues mentioned, Senator Davies mentioned, the councillor who travelled from West Cork into Cork City. I mean, it's a day's journey, in and out. And he has stood to lose, I think it was 5,000 euros, right? I did actually write to councillors some years back and did warn them against the accumulation of mileage. I do think Moorhead, it's the one good thing I saw coming out of Moorhead. The Moorhead report, I'm glad, Minister, that you looked at it and then you went to the practitioners on the ground. Because I learned very little else when I came in here. Most of us really don't know what councillors do. I had never served on a council and it has taken me years to build up some knowledge of the amount of work and commitment that's involved for councillors. So, Minister, I have to say I'm leaving today on a bit of a low. I do believe what you said and I will be holding you to account. And I'm sure the county councillors around the country will be holding all of us in this chamber to account for what was promised today. But I do thank you for taking the time to come here and I want to thank my colleagues, all of them, who spoke in favour of our own electorate and who were not afraid to stand up here today and make a case for our colleagues who are in the front line. Thank you very much indeed for your time, Minister.