The reinstatement of town councils across Kildare would help to improve local facilities in towns and villages across the county, according to Kildare North TD James Lawless.
The Fianna Fáil deputy is calling for the restoration of local councils as it will help to improve services around the county, and with constituency boundary changes of late he feels it is badly needed.
“We know that decisions are best made by those closest to them. That includes local in Government,” stated Deputy Lawless.
“Places like Celbridge and Maynooth did not have a town council so it is important that if we re-establish them, and I hope that we do, it is done in such a way that it is uniform and balanced across the country”.
“There was an idea a few years ago that Ireland was over-represented and had too many politicians but if we look at local government, France has one councillor for every 118 people, Denmark has one councillor for every 115 people and Ireland has one councillor for every 4,800, so we are actually at the opposite end of the scale. We are hugely under-represented in local government”.
Deputy Lawless has highlighted the cost-saving measures which led to the abolition of such councils, but believes they are worth the cost involved.
"When the abolition took place, the cost savings amounted to €15 million over the 72 town councils abolished. It reminds me of the 132 Garda stations that were closed for a cost saving of €2 million. There was a general populism at the time, which we might put at the door of Fine Gael. It was a kind of anti-quango talk, of which the current Taoiseach was to the fore, calling for the abolition of various agencies, when all he was doing was abolishing public services. It was a populist, anti-expert kind of mood because the figures do not bear it out”.
“I would welcome the return of town councils to Kildare provided that there is uniform across the county to see all towns have local residents representing their community,” concluded Deputy Lawless.
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