Councillors defend role and function vehemently

The McCarthy report has recommended the abolition of town councils. Thurles, Co Tipperary, is just one of 80 towns throughout the State which would be affectedif the idea is implemented

THE McCARTHY report’s proposals for local government reform include the abolition of town councils. The cost-cutting recommendation has prompted alarm among councillors – though few have responded as stridently as Fine Gael’s councillor Denis Foley, chairman of Bagenalstown Town Council in land-locked Co Carlow, who misquoted Churchill and declared: “We will fight them in the air, we will fight them on the land and we will fight them on the beaches.”

Apart from county and city councils, 80 towns throughout the State also have elected town councils. Thurles, Co Tipperary, with a population of 7,000, is a typical example.

Town clerk Michael Ryan says the town council, which has a staff of 30 and a budget for 2009 of just under €5.9 million, is responsible for housing, planning, rates, amenities and leisure, litter prevention, street cleaning and local roads. Other services – such as maintaining national and regional roads, the water supply, and fire and library services – are provided by the county council.

The town council has nine elected members and meets once a month (except in August) and, because most councillors have traditionally worked in full-time employment, meetings are held at night.

Following the recent local elections, the councillors chose Evelyn Nevin as the new mayor of Thurles to serve for a one-year term. She’s a member of “Team Lowry” – a political group set up to support the Independent Tipperary North TD, Michael Lowry, which now has more councillors than the Green Party nationwide.

Commenting on the McCarthy report, Ms Nevin said while she appreciates that “savings have to made across the board”, she nevertheless believes that “every town has to have its own group of people to represent it”.

Noel O’Dwyer, an Independent councillor re-elected for a second five-year term, admits the council has little autonomy with “only a certain amount of control over litter, roads and footpath maintenance”.

But even in these areas, he ruefully concedes that power lies with the county council and all the town council can do is “to point out when certain street lights need to be fixed”. He believes “there’s too much bureaucracy for a country the size of Ireland” and says savings could be made by amalgamating north and south Tipperary county councils and actually delegating more power to the town councils.

John Kenehan (Labour), who was re-elected for a fourth term, rejects the McCarthy report’s recommendation and says: “Town councils are the hub of local democracy.” He claims their cost represents “small money”. He believes that “if town councils are abolished, then local services will disappear”. He describes the council workers as a “rapid response unit who have essential local knowledge to quickly deal with problems such as leaking water pipes or a problem with the sewerage system”.

Mr Kenehan said he remembered when councillors served on a voluntary basis but defends the payment of the representational allowance.

A former employee of Erin Foods and now a mature student of social and community studies at the third-level Tipperary Institute (also, ironically, targeted for closure by the McCarthy report), he says his “salary” as a councillor is his “sole source of income”.

Thurles Town Council has four Independent councillors, two from Labour and one each from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. Each receives an annual salary – known as a “representational allowance” – of €4,401, treated as taxable income by the Revenue Commissioners.

They also receive an annual (unvouched) expenses allowance of €2,200 which is not taxed and an annual mobile telephone allowance of “up to €400” for which they must produce receipts.

If they have to attend meetings or conferences outside Thurles, they are paid mileage and other expenses. Each year, they elect a mayor who serves for a 12-month term and receives a “top-up allowance” of €10,000 which is not taxable.