LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES from 80 towns and five cities yesterday described the McCarthy report’s recommendation to abolish town councils as an attack on the roots of democracy, and said it would be resisted.
In an “increasingly urbanised society”, more town councils needed to be created in areas such as Tallaght and Portarlington, and more, not less, power should be given to town councils, speakers at the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI) conference said. The councillors unanimously passed a motion rejecting economist Colm McCarthy’s ideas.
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley came under sustained criticism from the floor for failing to deliver, as scheduled, the official opening address to the association’s 96th annual conference. He was accused of “deliberately” absenting himself.
Mr Gormley had been replaced by Minister of State with responsibility for older people, Aine Brady, who delivered an address which dwelt mainly on a call for a Yes vote on Lisbon and on her own brief for older people, as well as “the difficult decisions” facing councils in expenditure.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley said as leader of the Green Party and as a senior Minister, he was obliged to remain in Dublin to deal with the new Nama Bill.
Mr Gormley had himself been a councillor, the spokesman said, and so would not wish to see town or city councils abolished.
In an attack on the McCarthy report, AMAI president, Councillor Jim O’Shea, said democracy had been undermined by the “unelected social partnership” which had prevailed in recent years.
Local government was in a much weaker position now with a reducing range of functions, and it was at the mercy of central Government, he said.
“There seems to be in this small country a mindset amongst our governing classes that small is bad and everything, including local authorities, must be supersized. The most recent catastrophic example of this mindset, also at the behest of consultants, is the HSE,” Mr O’Shea said.
Local elections attracted 80 per cent turnouts, and this was why European elections, which would not attract anything like the same numbers, were held on those dates, Mr O’Shea said.
An emergency motion on the subject drew heated contributions from the floor. The Labour Partys Dermot Lacey, Dublin City Council, called for the abolition of the entire Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which he said had “destroyed local government”.
Cllr Seán O’Grady, Killarney, said the problems facing society today were “entirely” town problems. Town government had been born out of “the difficulties of living in a confined space”, he said.
Cllr Seán O’Brien from Tullamore Town Council said in Europe the big impetus was development of local authorities as “the basis of democracy”.
Cllr Denis Landy, Carrick-on-Suir, said Colm McCarthy was “just the messenger”, and he would like to tell John Gormley that town councils would be around “long after he was gone as Minister”.