Wexford): In bringing the Local Government Bill, 1994 to this House, I am conscious that this is the third Local Government Bill being brought before the Oireachtas since 1991, as part of the ongoing process of legislative reform of local government. The present Bill, following on the Local Government Act, 1991, and the recent Dublin reorganisation Act, represent a further stage of the programme to overhaul the law, the structures and the general framework within which local authorities operate.
Local government reform is not about change for the sake of change, although consolidation of the law is badly needed. Its principal aim is to secure and strengthen the local government system, with special emphasis on the role of the elected members within that system. One of the essential requirements for this is to strengthen the local authorities themselves by broadening their power base and giving them greater flexibility and freedom of action. This Bill extends the frontiers of local authority power and discretion on several fronts, which I will refer to later.
The second critical factor in strengthening the local government system is to ensure that there are suitable and effective structures. We have already made significant progress in that regard with the reform of structures in the Dublin area and the creation of new regional structures. The Government have confirmed the position of the county councils as the primary units of local government. The one important component still to be fitted into the system is the modernisation of town local government, something that had been left to one side by several Governments who were unwilling to face up to the complex issues involved. One of the principal achievements of the present Bill is that it addresses this fundamental issue by providing a complete framework and mechanism for the reform of town local government.
Recent years have seen dramatic change — changes in society, in technology, in work, in development patterns — affecting cities, towns and rural areas. Everyone in this House is aware of the importance of our towns to the economic, social, commercial and educational life of their wider hinterlands. By the same token we are all conscious of the new pressures which social change over the past 30 years or so has brought about and which are particularly evident in urban areas.
The Government has been responding to these changes on a number of fronts, with a variety of measures ranging from major expenditure programmes on environmental protection, to the construction of by-passes, urban renewal schemes, new priorities for social housing, all of these measures creating employment and all contributing to the social and economic development of towns and their hinterlands. There have been significant changes and development at central and local government level, but the system of town local government itself has been largely left untouched. It is now timely to focus on town local government as part of the overall programme of local government reform and to address the democratic and administrative structures of towns.
As a first step, the Bill provides for the holding of town elections in June 1994. These will involve the election of members to five borough corporations, 49 urban district councils and 26 town commissioners, authorities which have not had elections since 1985. As already announced, the elections will take place on 9 June in conjunction with the European Parliament elections. However, the important point is that they will be held, not on the basis of outdated town boundaries, which have up to now excluded many residents from having a say in electing the council, but rather with the electorate enlarged to allow residents in the built up environs to participate in electing the authorities for those towns.
The Bill provides for the extension of boundaries for the purposes of the elections in the case of 56 towns listed in the Third Schedule. These boundary alterations will be put into effect under Part X of the Bill which provides specifically for implementation of proposals submitted by county managers following consultations with the county and town authorities concerned. The boundary extensions are being implemented on the basis of proposals agreed by the local authorities concerned.
As the law stands, the next elections to county and borough councils would be due in 1996. It is desirable to bring the timing of all local elections back into step, as had been the case before the postponement of the town elections in 1991. The Bill provides that elections to all authorities will next be held in 1998. I might mention here that the General Council of County Councils asked that this be put back to 1999. However, I believe that this would be too long. On the other hand, the holding of elections in 1996 would give the members elected at next June's town elections only a two year term. I feel that designation of 1998 as the next year of elections to all authorities strikes the best balance in this regard.
The elections are just the immediate issue. For the long term, town local government needs a modern and efficient administrative framework with a meaningful classification of authorities instead of the outdated and inadequate system which is now in place. At present there are 26 towns with town commissioners, set up under an Act which is over 140 years old and whose provisions are almost totally out of place in the modern era. Among them are some large and important centres, including county towns such as Mullingar and Portlaoise. Similarly, there are a number of very large centres of population, such as Dun-dalk, Bray, Tralee, Ennis and Athlone, which have local authorities of the same classification as places only a fraction of their size. In other words, their local authority classification does not appear to properly reflect their actual size and importance as major centres.
Population growth and development has very seriously outpaced local government structures in certain parts of the country with the result that places such as Celbridge and Maynooth, which have grown very rapidly over the past ten to 15 years, have no town local authorities whatsoever, although they are now far larger than many existing urban districts. These anomalies and other necessary reforms will be addressed as a matter of urgency in this Bill.
They will be addressed through the establishment of an independent local government reorganisation commission to carry out a review and make proposals for the reorganisation of local government in towns and for the implementation of such proposals. The commission will consist of up to seven members and must include elected councillors from both town and county authorities among its members. The task of the commission is to prepare and submit a reorganisation report containing proposals for town local government, including such matters as the number of classes of local authority; the role and functions appropriate to each class; financial, staffing and organisational matters in relation to each class; and the implications for county councils. The report will also contain proposals regarding the appropriate class for each existing town local authority; criteria and procedures for the creation of local authorities for non-municipal towns; and measures and arrangements for the implementation of reorganisation proposals.
The commission will have regard to all relevant factors, such as community identity and civic tradition; local capability; the need for effective and efficient discharge of functions and delivery of service; and the need to safeguard the position and capacity of the county councils as the primary units of local government. The Bill gives the reorganisation commission a clear mandate and a definite framework and makes specific provision for implementation of its proposals. There is no question, therefore, of solutions being imposed from the centre.
The commission will be obliged to go about its task urgently and there will be full and open consultation. The Bill specifically requires the commission to invite submissions from local authorities and to have regard to any submissions made to it. As is clear, the commission has been given a strong and unambiguous brief.
All of these provisions are evidence of a clearly defined approach in relation to the sub-county structure of local government. A major decision has been taken. The effect is to retain town local government as the sub-county structure of local government and to modernise and enhance it. An issue which many Governments have shied away from over a long period of years is now being resolved — an important milestone in the Government's structural reform programme for local government.
Since 1991, a policy of strengthening the powers of local authorities and giving them greater flexibility and freedom of action has been consistently followed. Removal of the “ultra vires” rule, relaxation of centralised controls on local authorities and devolution of functions in specific areas of operation such as housing and traffic are cases in point. The present Bill continues and extends this approach. For example, it provides for the removal of central controls which currently apply to local authorities in areas such as by-laws, parks, burial grounds and personnel matters.
The principle that the local authority is best positioned to decide local issues on its own initiative is similarly reflected in the creation, in Part VII of the Bill, of a new broad by-law making power which will enable the elected local authorities to regulate a variety of matters and activities where they consider this desirable in the interests of the common good of the local community, without the need for ministerial approval, sanction or consent. The same philosophy is also brought to bear in the provisions of Part VI, which provide flexible devolved powers for local authorities in the provision of various amenities and facilities. A scattered range of largely outdated provisions will be replaced by a modern, uniform code which will be concise yet comprehensive.
The Bill also deals with the modernisation and reform of local electoral law. Recent years have seen new legislation on Dáil and Presidential elections and referenda. As part of an overall programme of reform of the electoral law, it is now the turn of local elections.
Part II of the Bill contains updated and consolidated provisions in relation to local authority membership. Part III provides for the modification of the detailed procedures relating to local elections. Following this Bill, regulations to consolidate and modernise all the procedures at local elections will be brought before the Oireachtas for approval. In the process it is proposed to apply to those elections the many improvements in procedure which have been introduced for Dáil and Presidential elections in recent years.
The Bill also deals with the issue of the so-called dual mandate, which has been the subject of much comment lately. There is a body of opinion in favour of ending the dual mandate of local authority and Oireachtas membership, and it is well known that many local authority members would welcome changes in this regard as a means of enhancing the separate status of local authority membership. Equally, there is a body of opinion in favour of the retention of the dual mandate which stresses the importance of linkage between local and national government.
In most European countries it is by and large the standard practice on attaining a seat in the national parliament to resign from local government. This is in recognition of the heavy workloads attaching to participation in local and national government. However, there is another dimension to it, which is the recognition of the importance of local government as an administrative and political entity in its own right. The concept of separate membership is consistent with and complementary to the principle of enhancing the powers and discretion of local authorities as bodies with real responsibility for local matters, which is, of course, a major objective of the Government's local government reform programme.
Initial steps towards enhancing the separate status of local authority membership were taken in 1991 with the exclusion of Ministers and Ministers of State from membership. It is considered that an outright statutory prohibition would not be appropriate at this stage. Very few countries have such a prohibition and in addition an outright ban would cause inordinate discontinuity in local authority membership, given the existing high level of overlap.
However, the Bill does provide for the exclusion of a range of public office holders from local authority membership. These are the Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, chairpersons of various Oireachtas Select Committees, members of the European Commission and other EU office holders and, arising from an amendment at Dáil Report Stage, Members of the European Parliament. Oireachtas Members will be disqualified from being a local authority chairperson or vice-chairperson, to be known incidentally as cathaoirleach and leas-chathaoirleach in future. These new exclusions will serve to further promote the concept of separate local authority membership. Together with the other changes in the law relating to qualifications for local authority membership, they will apply from the 1998 elections. Existing local authority members are not, therefore, affected.
I should point out here that it was against the background of recommendations in the Barrington Report, a Council of Europe Report, last year's Report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women and of the views of local authority members who are not Oireachtas Members, that an examination of the dual mandate was carried out. I would also like to record the fact that the General Council of County Councils has experienced agreement with the provisions of the Bill in this regard.
I would like to refer, briefly, to the provisions of the Bill which deal with the local authority library service, a service which is of inestimable value to the country with a unique impact on individual and community life, serving a wide range of needs, educational, recreational and cultural purposes as well as more specialised needs such as the ever increasing interest in local history and heritage. It is then important that such a service should have an up to date and flexible statutory base which enables it to respond to the diverse needs of individual communities and modern society.
Provisions in Part VI of the Bill will consolidate and modernise the law while at the same time strengthening and extending the library powers of local authorities, replacing a total of nine separate Acts dating as far back as 1855, largely archaic in form and restrictive in effect. In their place, streamlined provisions will be substituted which will include some important new elements, such as a provision for the adoption of library development programmes. There is also provision to allow the application of updated provisions to An Chomhairle Leabharlanna — the Library Council, a body which provides important library advisory and support services to the local authorities.
Members of this House will be aware of the Minister's announcement on Second Stage in the Dáil that additional funding of £2 million will be made available this year to the library service. This will give a valuable injection of funding for new book stock and assist the libraries in providing a higher standard of service to the public.
We have in the past number of years developed a new appreciation of the value of archival material. The level of public interest in the national archives and the appreciation of their particular value has stimulated an increased awareness of the importance of local archives. Accordingly, section 67 of the Bill contains a new provision relating to the keeping of local records and archives, modelled on the law applying to the national archives. There must be a priceless heritage of archival material all around the country deriving from the activities of our present local authorities and the bodies that preceded them. It is now appropriate to begin establishing a more formal system of archival protection and development. Accordingly the Bill provides for arrangements for the proper management, custody, care and conservation of local records and archives, and for inspection by the public.
I am hopeful that in coming years local authorities will put in place a phased programme for recording, conserving and making available for inspection the records of their own activities over the years. As a first step, modest funding will be made available to authorities to assist them in this task. This might be directed towards ascertaining what has been done to date in relation to local records and archives, what material exists in different areas, what the immediate priorities are and how a consistent programme of development could be put in place.
Part IV of the Bill contains provisions relating to the office of local authority cathaoirleach and leas-chathaoirleach which will, in future, be the official titles of the chairperson and vice-chairperson and were recently introduced for the new Dublin authorities. The titles of lord mayor and mayor will, however, continue to be used where they already exist, with a new statutory provision for deputy lord mayor and deputy mayor.
The existing law relating to local authority meetings is obscure, fragmented, inconsistent and well nigh impenetrable from the point of view of the ordinary councillor or the public. Part V provides for the making of regulations to introduce a modern and uniform code which will be beneficial to local authority members and officials and conducive to more efficient discharge of business. It should also make the workings of local authorities more understandable and accessible to members of the public. I should point out that there is no question here of the Department interfering in the workings of local authorities. What is in question is much needed reform which has been recommended as far back as the White Paper on local government reform in the early 1970s and more recently in the Barrington Report. I would also like to assure the Seanad that there will be full consultation with local authorities and the best existing practice will be followed.
While the Bill does contain some finance related provisions, these are mainly technical in nature and it is not a finance measure. Many Members may point to local authority finance as a major issue. Many different ideas have been floated on this question, often contradictory and unfeasible. What must be borne in mind is that in the reform of the local government system the first essential requirement is to get the issue of structures and functions right.
Ministers would always like to be able to provide higher levels of financial support for the services for which they are responsible and we in the Department of the Environment are no exception. However, it is a fact of life that all the competing demands on public funds cannot be met. The very harsh reality is that increased financing to local authorities can only be found by increased taxation or by cutting some other public service.
The estimated expenditure of local authorities in 1994 is £1.6 billion. Local authorities provide a huge range of services with a staff of 30,000 across the entire country. It is vitally important that these services are provided in an effective, efficient and economic way which will provide the best value for money for the taxpayer and ratepayer alike. My Department, in association with local authorities, has been looking at means of achieving higher levels of service for existing expenditures. Nowhere has this been more evident than in housing where local authorities have begun to adopt a more focused approach to the delivery of housing services. With the establishment of a value for money unit in my Department it is anticipated that a new focus on value for money can yield results in other areas of local government operation and thus lessen somewhat the pressures for increased funding.
As I said at the start, the objective of this Bill is to improve the position of local authorities. The whole thrust of the local government reform programme is to strengthen local democracy. With this in mind, the Minister has made some important changes to the Bill arising from contributions in the Dáil. For example, the Minister brought forward an amendment to put an end to the power of the Minister to postpone local elections by order — a power which was brought in by the Fine Gael-led Coalition Government in 1973. This is a further recognition of the status and significance of local government and yet another instance of this Government's willingness to remove the hand of central Government from the local government system.
A further important change brought forward by the Minister in the light of the Dáil debate is the decision to extend the list of exclusions for local authority membership to MEPs. This is further recognition of the importance of local government in its own right and of the status of local authorities as significant democratic institutions independent of central Government.
In five years time — in April 1999 — our county councils will be 100 years old. There will undoubtedly be great celebrations of the achievement of the local government system generally. It is my hope that this Bill in conjunction with other recent local government legislation and the significant improvement in powers and procedures in other specific codes of law, will go a major part of the way towards ensuring that local government has the structures and the capability generally to meet the needs of the diverse communities it serves in the towns, cities and counties.
I commend the Bill to the House.