Labour accused of shedding ‘crocodile tears’ over abolition of town councils

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has rejected a claim by his Cabinet colleague and Labour Minister Brendan Howlin that the abolition of town councils was wrong and should be reversed.

Mr Coveney was responding to Mr Howlin’s admission at the Labour Party conference that the decision to replace 114 local authorities with 31 integrated authorities was one of his biggest regrets of the coalition’s term of office.

“I think Government policy in this area will be proven to be the correct course of action. One of the big reforming agendas was in local Government to try and reduce the number of councillors and to make local authorities more effective,” Mr Coveney said.

“That project is really only underway now so we will have to wait and see how it works out but no, I think Government policy in this area in time will prove to be the correct course of action.”

Mr Coveney said he thought local Government would be more effective in future as a result of the changes. He was speaking at the launch of a bike scheme in Cork on Monday.

Mr Howlin was accused of weeping "crocodile tears" over the abolition of town councils by Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Barry Cowen.

Mr Cowen said streamlining of local authorities was undoubtedly needed, but insisted the Government had gone too far with a “wholesale cull” of councillors, down from 1,627 to 949.

“It’s crocodile tears as far as I’m concerned on the part of Brendan Howlin. I’m glad he’s acknowledged the errors of their ways. I’d like to see ways and means by which he might address those errors,” Mr Cowen said.

Speaking at the publication of his party’s policy document on the “crisis in Irish towns”, Mr Cowen said Fianna Fáil was proposing “town teams” to fill the gaps left by the removal of councils.

The teams would involve political, community groups, business, Garda and Government department representatives, he said, and would be tasked with drafting economic plans to revitalise town centres.

Earlier, Fine Gael TD John Paul Phelan said he disagreed with Mr Howlin's view that the decision to abolish town councils should be revered.

The Carlow-Kilkenny TD, who shared a constituency with former minister for the environment Phil Hogan who spearheaded the drive to reduce councillors, said the continuation of councils for areas with very small populations could not be justified.

“I don’t agree with Mr Howlin. For some larger urban centres of 20,000-plus you could make the argument but for most of the smaller ones you simply couldn’t,” Mr Phelan said.

“We had town councils around the country where 60 votes for you gets you elected and they served no real purpose.”

A Fine Gael spokeswoman said on Monday that in advance of the 2011 general election, the party had committed to “smaller, better government”, both at national and local level. “As well as reducing the size of the Dáil, this Government has, in a far reaching reform of local government... reducing the numbers of politicians by over 40 per cent,” she said.

The spokeswoman said new, enhanced roles for local authorities in economic development and job creation had been introduced. These included more powers for councillors in various areas, she added.