I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Local Government Act 1991 to ensure that the county status of a community shall not be altered without the explicit consent of the majority of its electorate.
The purpose of this Bill is to ensure that if the Constituency Commission, which reviews county boundaries across the country, decides to annex any part of a local authority area and county and move it into another county, the people in the area concerned would have a direct say in this. This legislation would provide for a plebiscite to take place in the affected area and the results to be legally binding on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.
The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, has a set up a review to examine the county boundaries between Waterford and Kilkenny; Carlow and Laois; Louth and Meath; and Westmeath and Roscommon. The people of Roscommon are very annoyed at this proposal, not least because they believe it is undemocratic. The report to be presented by the boundary review committee is not legally binding on the Minister. He must take note of it but he ultimately makes the decision under the Local Government Act 1991. The Local Government Act 2001 would force a vote on that in the House but it has not been enacted. The people and their representatives have no way of expressing their views on this except by making public submissions. My Bill would facilitate that process.
I am completely opposed to the proposal to remove one in nine of the population of my county, as are the vast majority of public representatives and the people of County Roscommon. It would make County Roscommon the poorest county in Ireland. We are not talking about moving the town of Monksland into an urban district council in Athlone because the urban district councils have been abolished. We are talking about making it a very small local area in a much bigger municipal district of south Westmeath. It is not a case of putting like with like. It is moving the town from one county to another.
This contravenes the proposals set out in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government’s policy document, “Putting People First”, which states that each municipal district should have at its centre an urban area. It is proposed to move this urban area from the Athlone municipal district of County Roscommon into County Westmeath. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government recently responded to Roscommon County Council and was extremely complimentary about the local area plan developed for the Monksland area. The Department’s comments are unique and yet another arm of the Department seeks to move that into County Westmeath.
The State has signed up to the European Charter of Local Self-Government which became legally binding on 1 September 2002. Article 5 of the charter states: “Changes in local authority boundaries shall not be made without prior consultation of the local communities concerned, possibly by means of a referendum where this is permitted by statute.” I am putting forward this legislation to permit it by statute. The basic requirement that the people of Monksland and the surrounding areas should have is to be able to express their opinion by a vote on whether they wish to remain in County Roscommon or be annexed into County Westmeath and that decision will be legally binding on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.
This measure is undermining the close co-operation that exists between Roscommon County Council and Westmeath County Council in respect of the RAPID programme, emergency and fire services, road maintenance, planning, water services and transport. It is pulling the rug from under this co-operation. If the Minister believes there needs to be stronger co-operation, let him provide for that through a statutory process rather than annexing part of one county.
There are several bluechip employers in the area. Monksland is the midlands centre for the biopharmaceutical, food and information technology, IT, industries, employing close to 1,000 people, all of whom unanimously oppose this move. I urge the Tánaiste to speak to her colleague, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, and ask him at the eleventh hour to withdraw this proposal rather than proceed with it.
