Fianna Fáil has proposed the abolition of up to 60 town councils that serve populations of less than 17,000, a conference on local government was told today.
President of the Association of Municipal Authorities, Councillor Frank Geelan of Boyle Town Council, told the conference in Buncrana town councils were being "sacrificed" in order to save €6 million, in line with the McCarthy report.
Mr Geelan said while local government reform was required, "it is the tier of politicians closest to the people which is being set up to be sacrificed".
He said Fianna Fáil had proposed the abolition of up to 60 local authorities, leading to 600 fewer councillors in a submission to the White Paper on Local Government Reform.
The submission recommends transferring the work of smaller town councils, such as the setting of commercial rates, to local area committees in county and city councils. These committees would act as a new tier of local government described as "town and district" councils.
Fianna Fáil's submission describes the current town council system as ineffective and lacking focus, because many town councils had "neither the population nor the financing" required.
Opposition councillors described the proposals as "outrageous" and "anti-democratic".
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said local government was "in limbo" because it lacked a "strong primary mission". He said the principle of local decisions being made where possible by the local community should apply.
Labour Party environment spokesman Ciaran Lynch told delegates: "If we have learned anything in the last few years, it is that doing away with democratically mandated, local organisations to make way for unaccountable super-bureaucracies, is a recipe for disaster".