I welcome the Minister to the House. I am delighted that a person which such experience at local authority level is here to listen to the sentiments of Senators. There is a huge amount of knowledge in this Chamber as many people have spent many years on local authorities and have gained much experience. There is no better grounding for a politician than to begin as a member of a local authority. One of the biggest shocks to the system is attending one's first meeting – I attended my first meeting in 1991 – and realising the amount of knowledge necessary and the things to be done and to be concentrated upon. Much of that knowledge has been shown here tonight in the contributions of Senators.
One of the reasons I strongly support the motion is that prior to last June there was a certain reluctance among people in my constituency to become involved in public life. It is a tough life and being a member of a local authority is difficult. In certain areas in my constituency people were not anxious to stand for election. We persuaded some of them to do so, one of whom was a young married lady with a young family who worked on a FÁS scheme, who stood for the first time and was elected to an urban council. One of the reasons she agreed to stand was that we said she would get some remuneration. The lady is working flat out as a member of a local authority, giving huge commitment to something she never did before. What other section of society is doing that nowadays? We live in an age where people, including trade unionists, farm leaders etc. are properly paid. We have been talking about this Bill for some time and it must be introduced to the House after Christmas as there are several people such as that lady who are working hard on behalf of their communities.
The role of councillors has changed much in recent years. With mobile telephones and faxes, communication is much more readily available to everybody. People need instant solutions to their problems. As a result, people are far more demanding and want a proper service. There are public representatives willing to do that work, but it is costing them money. It is high time we put in place a proper system of remuneration for those people as it is taxing on their time and energy.
There is a need for changes in the role of chairmen of councils. However, I do not agree with the Minister in terms of directly electing chairmen. In my time as a member of a local authority, nine people have had the role of chairman of the county council. It is an honour for any parish or community for one of their people to be elected chairman. If the chairman was directly elected for five years, only two people would have had the position of chairman over the time I have been a member of the authority. The Minister should rethink this important area, as inclusion of such a provision would limit the number of people who could lead their county and local authority. I question the reason for such provision. However, I see where the Minister is coming from.
In recent weeks a major investment was made when over £5 million worth of land was bought on the outskirts of Clonmel. The local authority members were not consulted about it, not even the chairman. On the morning of the meeting the chairman was told there was to be a major announcement. It is not good enough that public representatives had no say. I welcome the decision. It was the right decision and will have huge implications in the county. However, it is wrong that the chairman or members of the local authority were not consulted. The Minister is right to make the change, but I do not agree with him on directly elected chairmen.
Minister of State at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources (Mr. Byrne): I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, who cannot be here this evening because of other business.
Renewal of local government is finally centre stage. After many years of debate, reports, studies and rhetoric, we are seeing, at last, the start of real change and improvements to our local government system. I am happy to acknowledge the publication by the previous Administration of the White Paper, Better Local Government, in 1996. That said, however, until this Government came to power almost four years ago, the issue of local government renewal was still largely aspirational; it might be said that it proceeded at a snail's pace. Since then, the Minister has been working hard on a major programme of local government renewal and putting the various building blocks in place. Local government, constitutional and planning Bills were enacted in each of the last three years and seem to have bypassed the Fine Gael snail.
I was with a group of school children recently and we asked them to write down what they thought of various parties in the political system. Members would not want to hear some of the responses. However, I would like to share one little ditty with the House. What one child said was very appropriate: "God help all those in Fine Gael, for support they have employed a snail." That is not intended to be offensive. There were others that I would not care to mention here this evening. It is good to see that Fine Gael has woken up at last, but it will see that this Government has been pressing forward in a drive to renew our system of local government.
The critical objectives of the renewal programme are to strengthen local democracy, especially through an enhanced role for elected members, to provide proper resources, to develop partnership with sectoral interests and local communities, to improve customer service and to develop efficiencies in local government. It is a measure of the commitment of this Government, and much credit is due to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, for the real progress which has been made so far. I would like to indicate some of the many initiatives which have been taken in the drive to renew local government as opposed to the empty rhetoric of others.
Let me start with the basics. Local government is democratically elected. Its members are elected by direct vote of the people. It was this Government which took action to put the issue to the people by way of referendum last year and gave them an opportunity to afford proper recognition to local government and local democracy. Now, for the first time ever, local government has been given constitutional recognition as an intrinsic, distinct and separate part of our democracy and with a fixed electoral cycle. There can be no more postponing of local elections, so long a feature of the Irish system. Accountability is now the order of the day. I am sure Members would agree that when the fifth year was up and another year was added, I was sometimes happy about that. However, I am pleased and happy to see the end of that practice and that we now have a five year cycle.
One of the first priorities of the Government on taking office was to put in place a proper funding system to secure the necessary resources for the ambitious programme of local government renewal. The local government fund was established by the Local Government Act, 1998. This fund has delivered almost 63% more spending to local authorities since 1997 for their general purposes allocation. The resources available under the new system, estimated at £739 million in 2001, will help local authorities to provide more and better quality services to all sectors of the community and with certainty and confidence to plan for the future. In addition, a "needs and resources" model has been introduced to create a more equitable method of distributing funds to local authorities.
Under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, this Government has delivered the greatest ever capital investment programme to meet the needs of a growing economy and a modern society. Local authorities have a key role in upgrading roads, water, housing and other necessary infrastructure.
The partnership model has been introduced to the local government system by way of strategic policy committees which are now largely established in the vast majority of county and city councils and bring together elected members and representatives of the local sectoral interests. These will facilitate an early and meaningful input by elected members to policy development in key areas of local authority activity and, along with other reforms, will help to rebalance the relationship between councillors and management, and the SPCs will have proper back-up with directors of service.
A further initiative has seen the establishment of county and city development boards. Already they are up and running and planning strategically for their areas. They are led by local government and have representation from the social partners, local development and State agencies. Directors of community and enterprise have been appointed and support staff are in place. Now that the CDBs are operational, the next real challenge is to draw up their strategies for economic, social and cultural development and to implement them successfully. In short, the Government's objective in all of this is that CDBs, operating under the local government umbrella, will ultimately provide greater coher ence in the delivery of public and local development services at local level.
I will turn now to customer service. Here, too, a whole range of initiatives is well under way to promote efficiencies in local government. Among these are a complete revamp of financial management and accounting systems, increased emphasis on corporate planning, improved management structures with directors of service, service indicators to measure performance across local authorities, better use of IT and other innovative measures with financial assistance from the centre, one-stop shops promoted by local authorities to deliver more integrated public services from a single location and with funding provided by the Minister's Department. The overall aim is to equip local authorities with the requisite tools to provide a first class, quality service that is competitive and efficient.
I would also like to take the opportunity to remind the Fine Gael Senators that the Planning and Development Act, 2000, will give us a much improved planning system and greatly enhance the policy functions of the elected members.
I will turn next to the Local Government Bill, 2000. One of the Minister's main concerns for many years has been to revitalise and reinvigorate local government and to maintain confidence and credibility in local democracy. A key aim must be to restore the balance in local government and address the democratic deficit. The Local Government Bill, together with the reform process already under way, which I have outlined, aims to achieve that.
The Bill will provide the statutory framework to move forward. Its aims are to enhance the role of the elected member; support community involvement; modernise local government legislation and provide the framework to promote efficiency and effectiveness; and underpin generally the programme of local government renewal.
The Local Government Bill was published last May. It is the first attempt in over a century to consolidate and modernise local government law and follows directly from last year's constitutional recognition of local government. The people voted for change last year when they accorded constitutional recognition to local government as a distinct part of our democratic system.
A key aim of the Bill is to enhance the role of the elected council. A whole package of interlinked measures is designed to this end. The elected council will develop policy and set the policy parameters through its early intervention via the strategic policy committees, and in association with other relevant sectors. The manager is under a duty to carry into effect the decisions of the elected council and to perform the executive functions within democratically settled policies. The Bill provides an array of mechanisms to enable the council to maintain a proper overview of local authority business, develop, make and steer policy and to oversee the executive. The ending of the dual mandate and the introduction of a directly elected cathaoirleach in 2004 are further key elements of this package.
For members to become properly and fully involved in this way demands practical supports and those are being provided. For example, provision is made in the Bill for the introduction, for the first time, of salary and pension arrangements; continued allowances for members and cathaoirligh, with an allowance for leas-chathaoirligh; better administrative back-up; and improved training and development programmes. The Minister is currently accelerating a training and development programme for all elected members in consultation with their representative associations, which is already under way.
Prior to and immediately following publication of the Bill, the Minister consulted with the three representative associations – AMAI, GCCC and LAMA. At his request they organised a joint seminar in Tralee last July attended by over 600 councillors. The Minister and officials attended this day long seminar. It provided an opportunity for members to be fully briefed by the Minister on the Bill and, more importantly, it enabled the Minister to listen directly to the views of local elected members and to answer their questions.
Subsequently, a joint submission on the Bill from the three associations was made last September. The Minister then held a further round of consultations, meeting with the three associations collectively and with each of them individually. The most recent meetings were held only last month. No one, least of all the local councillors, will dispute the fact that the Minister has willingly engaged in an ongoing and intensive programme of consultation since publication of the Bill, and no doubt the Bill will be a better one as a result of that dialogue. The point has now been reached where Second Stage will be taken early in the next Dáil session. As the House will know, the Minister readily accepted amendments to the Planning Bill where they gave rise to improvements while not departing from the fundamental underlying principles, and he has assured the representative associations that he will adopt a similar approach to the Local Government Bill.
It is clear, therefore, that the period between publication and Second Stage has been used productively and with a specific focus on full dialogue with local elected members, the most intensive consultations ever undertaken by any Minister for the Environment and Local Government. I am certain local elected members appreciate the time devoted to this task by the Minister. Perhaps Fine Gael Senators would prefer the Bill to have been railroaded through the House immediately following publication, with only token consultations. The consultation phase is now complete and we are at the point where con sideration of the Bill by the Oireachtas can now get under way. The Minister is to be commended for the manner in which he has handled the Bill and the wide-ranging consultations which were undertaken.
The Government programme for the renewal of local government is well under way with action across a wide range of fronts. It has seen legislation enacted in each of the past three years and a whole series of initiatives to improve the system of local government are ongoing. It is essential to examine the Local Government Bill against the background which I have outlined and as one component of an overall package. I have every confidence that the Bill will make a major contribution to creating a local government system founded on principles of democracy, partnership and community leadership, a system which is at the heart of local communities.
An intensive consultation phase with the elected members' associations has now been carried out and Senators would appear committed to dealing with the Bill quickly when it comes before this House. I have no doubt that the Minister is looking forward, as I am, to the coming debates on the Bill in the Dáil and the Seanad and to a better system of local government which places elected members at its core, backed up by practical supports. The actions taken by the Minister and the Government speak louder than the hollow words of the Fine Gael motion. I commend the amended motion to the House.