Kilkenny TD says reforms 'decimated local government', as calls grow to reinstate town and borough councils

A Seanad committee debate on the Future of Local Democracy has heard from a cross-section of members all regretting the abolition of town and borough councils.

Minister of State Malcolm Noonan was addressing the committee 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. He received support from a number of other members, including Donegal TD Thomas Pringle (Ind).

“I agree with the Minister of State on the 2014 Act. It was a disgrace and it destroyed a lot of local authorities. It resulted in the dissolution of the 80 town councils which were the purest form of local democracy we have ever seen,” said Deputy Pringle.

Labour Senator Mark Wall acknowledged the role his party had played in the abolition of the councils.

“We were part of a Government that abolished town councils, our most local system of governance, in 2014. That was a mistake and it did not take us long to recognise that,” he said.

“We tried to rectify the issue through the introduction of the restoration of town councils Bill in 2018 but it has been languishing on Committee Stage in the Dáil ever since. I ask, as other colleagues have mentioned, that any future Government strongly consider this Bill on the restoration of town councils.”

Senator Shane Cassells (FF) said a recurring theme of the debate was the eradication of power at a granular level.

“We need to acknowledge that in the context of towns like Kilkenny, Drogheda and Sligo that had borough councils and a unique status, as well as growing towns like Navan. Removing them was a disservice to the general population and I would seek their restoration,” he said.

Summing up proceedings, Minister of State Noonan concluded: “There is definitely a majority opinion in this committee that the possibility of reinstating them needs to be considered, particularly the borough councils. I say that as someone who came from what was then the Kilkenny Borough Council, which was able to strike its own rate, had its own budgetary powers and had 12 elected members, who worked solely on an urban agenda,” he said.