I should like to say a few words on this Bill, the purpose of which is to postpone the local elections until June of next year. So far so good. All one can talk about in connection with this Bill, without getting into what I call pure politics which I do not propose to get into, is why the elections were not held some time last spring. The Presidential election and the 1916 celebrations and commemorations kept the country in a heightened state, and I suppose there was an idea that something as humble as the local elections would be a come-down. I think that was a mistake.
Deputy Fitzpatrick and Deputy Reynolds referred to the cost of the local elections. Apparently it is something like £70,000. That is not to be sneezed at, but I do not think it is the most important aspect. It is an important aspect but not the most important. The idea that the local elections were second-class elections came inevitably from their postponement, and from the refusal to hold them at the same time as the Presidential election. That was a mistake from the point of view that it gave rise to the idea that the local elections were not very important.
They are enormously important. A great deal of the life of the community in general is debated and decided at local government level. It is not necessarily at a lower level than the parliamentary level, but it is at a different level. It is not good for our people to have the idea that it is at a lower level. We are still a very young State. We know, of course, that we are an old country with a long history, but we are young in the administration of self-government. Most of the better legislative minds that have dealt with our problems over the past 40 odd years have recognised that a buildingup process was very necessary and very desirable in Ireland—building-up and a strengthening of our people in the arts of self-government.
One of the greatest arts of self-government is the art of local government. Especially nowadays, with the State coming more and more into the lives of the people these matters should be tested at local government level. These matters should be discussed and public opinion tested and indeed formed at the level of the councils and county councils throughout Ireland. Matters dealing with roads and behaviour on the roads, and all that type of thing, reach the consciousness of the public through that medium in a far better way that they could through discussion in Dáil Éireann, so anything that tends to denigrate the importance of local elections is not good. For that reason alone it would have been a good thing to hold what is the greatest election in this country at the same time as ones which individually are much more humble but which in their general effect are of enormous importance for the dignity of the country at large. Next June is probably as good a time as any to hold these elections. I will come back to that again.
The Minister referred in his speech to the important changes which he was going to bring into the law governing local elections. He gave some hints as to what will happen. He said:
A Bill is being drafted to repeal certain disqualifications for membership of local authorities and to set up new legal machinery for questioning local elections by petition.
I and the House would very much welcome more details as to what is intended in that measure. In view of that very desirable need to build up public opinion in that respect, the Minister and all Ministers should not lose any opportunity to inform public opinion by illuminating the scene which they propose to change by legal action and by new Bills.
It is a pity that the Minister did not give us more details about what he is going to do. I wonder has he or have the Government any notion of bringing into our elections something they have in other countries where one-third or one-quarter of the body go out of certain councils after a given period. Some members retire after a year and there are elections all the time. I am not very sure that that is a good thing. It means that every year some elections are held and there is never a general municipal election. At least that would prevent the disruption which large elections bring about.
We who are politicians and who are engaged in that avocation whether or not professionally—and by that I mean whether or not we are engaged in it wholetime—are apt to lose sight of the fact that, while we are endeavouring to carry out the wishes of the people, while we are endeavouring to govern the country at Parliamentary level and administer local councils at local government level, our electorate are not always pleased—in fact very seldom—when disturbed by an election. Municipal elections have become really minor general elections and mean a considerable disruption of the ordinary life of the community and business people and others do not particularly welcome them. Neither do they welcome general elections and, therefore, we should try to minimise the disruption brought about. From that point of view there is something to be said for the policy of electing a few persons to each council every year. I hope the Minister will consider that.
Personally, I have no firm views on that method of election. It has points for and against it but it does prevent the big disruption that an overall municipal election causes. I would be the first to say that is democracy working and it is a necessary thing but we must take into account that many people do not realise the necessity for it and can become disgruntled and fail to vote because they consider the election a disruption of their business and almost an invasion of their privacy and free time. We would be wise to take that into account in considering the general question when matters are being recast in that respect.
I have been a member of Dublin Corporation for about 25 years and before that I was for some years on Dún Laoghaire Corporation. Generally speaking, in spite of the faults and weaknesses of councils I would say the public on the whole are well served by their local representatives although they do not always realise that and councillors do not always show their true worth. Sometimes at meetings when the Press is present they talk politically and do not get down to work when, in fact, the same councillors may be very hard-working and doing a great deal of solid constructive work in committee meetings which are not open to the public.
There used to be on Dublin Corporation commercial representatives who came from a commercial register and it was felt that as business people contributing through the rates very large sums to local taxation it was only just that they should have special representation. Through the years I am constantly aware of the lack we now suffer through the absence of commercial representatives. We have some commercial representatives in Dublin Corporation and in Dún Laoghaire Borough Council and in the County Council but they are not there specifically as business representatives and that tends all the time to make these various bodies politically minded, always viewing things from a political angle more than from a business point of view.
I am not trying to make the case, for a moment, that there should be any overwhelming representation of the business community. Various reform Acts were brought in over a century ago which altered that situation and nobody wishes to go back to that but a balance is an important thing and it would be for the good of the community at large and lead to better deliberations by those bodies if there was a commercial register so that there would be a number of commercially-minded people elected to
Dublin Corporation and Dún Laoghaire Borough Council. The county is a different matter but in the case of these two bodies which deal exclusively with urban matters it would strengthen them and make them much more effective in dealing with matters which vitally affect the commercial community, if they had commercial representatives.
In saying "commercial community" I am not referring only to business people themselves. Nowadays we realise that every business is composed of all the people who work in it and you cannot affect any business adversely without affecting the lives and happiness of all the employees and their families. When I say "commercial community" I mean that in the very widest sense, including those who are employed and get their livelihood in it. I should like the Minister to consider that when he is contemplating altering the electoral machinary and going into the various matters concerning councils throughout the country. I am sure that in other cities in Ireland the changes I have advocated would make for better management of councils.
It is a pity we did not get our elections over in 1960 and thus avoid-a recurrence of what has been occurring, namely, that in the spring of 1965 we had a general election, in the spring of 1966 we had the Presidential election and in the spring of 1967, we shall have the local elections which, as I have said, present as big a disruption of life generally as does a general election. In future, therefore, every effort should be made to telescope the different elections, not only for reasons of cost but so that we shall keep before our people the very high purpose served by local elections.