Was the abolishment of Town Councils good or bad for Mayo?
According to a Mayo councillor, the ordinary man on the street has more power than an elected official these days.
This comment was made during a discussion about the abolition of town councils, which divided Mayo County Council members at the annual general meeting (AGM) last week.
Cllr Blackie Gavin raised the discussion topic and directly addressed Minister Calleary, who was present at the AGM, as he said, “At a national level they’re on about bringing back some of the town councils, I think that’s very important.”
The Castlebar-based councillor argued for the importance of town councils in relation to capital project funding not being spent in Mayo. He said, “We got nearly €12 million here a number of years ago for capital projects in our county town of Castlebar, and not a euro has been spent yet. I know from talking to my colleagues all around the State, every other town and village has the money spent except Mayo. It’s a disaster.”
Town councils were abolished in 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act, in which 80 town councils across Ireland were dissolved in an aim to streamline local government. Phil Hogan, who was Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government at the time, steered the reform.
Cllr Richard Finn told the AGM, “When Phil Hogan abolished the town councils, I thought it was the best day for local government. I believe it has given the small towns and villages that we represent around the county an equal share of the national and the county cake,
“We are elected here as county councillors, not town councillors, and we have to work for the county and spread the money around the county equally.”
His comments were supported by Cllr Neil Cruise, who stated that he favours a strengthening of the municipal districts over the reinstatement of town councils. He said, “The small to medium-sized towns and the villages are getting a lot better bang for their buck in the municipal districts.”
A new Local Democracy Taskforce was announced at the beginning of June. It aims to reform and strengthen local government by examining the structure, functions, governance and funding of local authorities.
Cllr Damien Ryan from Ballinrobe has been appointed to the Taskforce. He spoke at the AGM and backed the abolition of town councils, saying they created a two-tier system where “If you had the luxury of a town council you had a massive funding stream, but everywhere outside of that was completely eliminated.”
Cllr Ryan argued that funding for the municipal districts must increase, as the funding mechanism has not followed the 2014 reform to local government. He is an advocate for reform in local authorities and said, “If we are serious about balanced redevelopment and social inclusion, then local authorities that don’t have the mechanism to collect the funding that keeps them sustainable need to be looked at. The Department of Finance have to step in there,
“Funding follows the power and follows the people. The capitalising of local authorities that don’t have the luxury of density of property base has to be looked at.” He argued that if that is done properly, then local government reform would “not need to be touched again for another 25-30 years”.
In response to this, Cllr Gavin said, “We collect over €1 million from pay and display in the town,” but stated that Castlebar doesn’t get this funding back to spend on local projects.
He finished making his case for the reinstatement of town councils by saying, “The councillors have no powers. The ordinary man on the street has more say than the elected councillor.”
This article has been funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.