Kilkenny councillor: "I feel we have very few, if any, powers now"

A well-known Kilkenny councillor, who has served as Mayor of Kilkenny on multiple occassions, has called for the reintroduction of Kilkenny Borough Council.

"I would like to see the reintroduction of the borough council," he told those in attendance at a recent Seanad Public Consultation Committee debate on 'The Future of Local Democracy'.

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"I was originally a borough councillor, from 2019 to 2014, when the Local Government Act put paid to that.

"As a municipal district member of Kilkenny City, I feel we now have very few, if any, powers now. It is all done in the council headquarters in John Street.

"Is there a possibility or a grá from the party members who are sitting behind me or the Senators to my left to bring back borough councillors? That was where the real power was.

"I loved the time I spent on the borough council and much was achieved. I recall that Phil Hogan was Minister at the time and, to be fair to him, he delivered a lot. The 2014 Act came in then and destroyed it."

Cllr Malone is not the first high profile Kilkenny political representative to call for the reintroduction of the borough council in recent weeks in the Seanad.

Minister of State Malcolm Noonan was addressing the committee during a previous debate when he referred to the ‘Putting People First’ reforms brought in in 2014 by then Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.

He said the reforms had ‘decimated local government’.

“The abolition of borough and town councils was a political stroke that undermined local accountability,” said Minister of State Noonan.

“I was a member of one of the five borough councils and the Kilkenny corporation had a history dating back to the 13th Century.

“Now more than ever, the urban agenda is distinct from a wider county and rural agenda. The urban agenda across the EU is around participation in climate plans and the recently adopted nature restoration law, sustainable development goals, natured-based solutions, town centre first - all initiatives that need a specific urban focus.”

Deputy Noonan said the Green Party had not been able to ‘get everything we wanted in the programme for Government’, and that the Party had wanted to bring back borough and town councils.

“A future government should consider doing that,” he said.

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