Local Government (Support for Elected Members) Bill 2024: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-10 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, who is no stranger to working in local government. Indeed he has served in local government and worked within the Department and I want to acknowledge his work. I also acknowledge Mr. Tim Carey who is here from the Department and heading up local government and has vast experience in it too. I acknowledge his work, the Minister of State's work and the Department's work. I thank the independent Senators who brought this Bill forward. It is a very simple Bill, with only three sections to it, but it is very focused and I commend them for bringing the amendment. I also acknowledge the Cathaoirleach. He established the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on local government and many of the Members here were actively involved in that. There was a long protracted discussion, debate and engaging with the stakeholders and others such as sitting county managers and local government and department officials, the engagement took place in the Chamber, so it is on the public record. What was very interesting was we came up in the end with a very substantial report with 25 key recommendations and I have them here. It was very clear and did not need any explanation. When I was first a councillor I did not get a penny, quite frankly. I handed in a bill and I scratched out in red ones that were used for political reasons. The maximum I could get was £11 or something. That meant exposing all my telephone numbers to everybody anywhere and explaining to the county manager. Anyway, times have moved on and I am glad they have. Like Senator Ahearn, my proudest moment in political life was the first day I entered the Town Hall of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown where I grew up. Circumstances brought me there, nothing else, and I chose to live there for all of my life and I still live there and am very proud of that. I am a citizen there nearly before I am a citizen of Ireland. I feel so proud of the streets and of the place. Every day I went in there the hair stood on my back, moreso than coming into Seanad Éireann or Leinster House. I fundamentally believe in the power of local government and subsidiarity. You are effectively a bit of a parish priest, therapist, counsellor, and a whole load of things but you are an advocate too. What makes local government really important is that one is also a stakeholder in the decisions. I am somewhat disappointed that the timed amendment is for 12 months. I would have understood had the Minister of State come in here and said we will defer this until the task force completes its work. That is reasonable and it is still open to the Government to come back earlier if it wishes, I presume. I urge the Minister of State to consider when the task force on local government completes its work - I understand that will be around Easter or a bit longer - that he might come back to the political groupings in both Houses to see whether can we bring this legislation forward slightly. I thank Councillor Malone for being here because he has been consistently advocating on behalf of councillors from LAMA, and the very distinguished AILG president, Councillor Mary Hanna Hourigan from Senator Ahearn's neck of the woods. She was here last week addressing a meeting the Independent Senator Frances Black and others organised and she made a very strong case. Councillors want to do the job but they need the support. Local government is very challenging. There are huge complexities in our communities ranging from crime, addiction, drugs to housing and a councillor is, as Senator Fitzpatrick said, the person of political interest, and that is a challenge for people. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-10/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-12-10