Local Government (Support for Elected Members) Bill 2024: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-10 ============================================================ Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Like other Members, I started my political career in local government. I spent 16 years on Kilkenny County Council. It was not always easy being the only Green in the village. I served quite a bit of that time with Councillor Joe Malone, who is one of the hardest-working councillors in the country. The work he does in LAMA, on top of his day-to-day council work, is a great credit to him. Like other Members, I acknowledge the reforms that have taken place. I spent a lot of my Saturday nights with a baby on one knee and a laptop on the other, responding to emails. It was hugely challenging, both financially and for my family. Huge sacrifices were made trying to survive politically and to try to survive financially as a family. People take those chances because they believe in what they are doing in representing their local communities. I looked at the reform that took place in 2014. Unfortunately, Phil Hogan's reforms tore the heart out of local government. Councillor Malone and I were members of a borough council. There was a borough council in Clonmel. There were five boroughs. The Taoiseach has been talking about a pilot reinstatement of borough and town councils. Let us look at the representation with the ratio of councillors to population since those reforms in 2014. It simply is not sustainable that councillors have to represent such a large proportion of the population. That needs to be looked at in its entirety and the borough and town councils need to be reinstated in time for the 2029 local elections. That is hugely important. The broader urban agenda is why the concerted effort around urban development is important. The EU role, directly elected mayors and the widening roles in respect of climate and nature all put a huge legislative burden on councillors that this administrative support would go a long way towards helping to alleviate. It would ensure that they make more informed decisions in council chambers, that they are up to speed on the legalities of all the decisions they make and that we have greater transparency in local government. All these things are extremely important to all of us here, as they are to Councillor Malone and his 900-odd colleagues around the country. I fully support the Bill. I am disappointed that we have yet another timed amendment. I ask the Minister of State to give some consideration to shortening the period involved somewhat. We have another task force kicking the can down the road yet again at a time when these reforms are urgently needed. Local government is the sleeping giant of Irish democracy. It has immense potential for transformative change. Our councillors are at the heart of that. They need to be supported in a meaningful way. That is something all of us in this Chamber agree on. I hope the Minister of State will give active consideration to that and will look at the changing role of councillors and at what they need in order to be able to carry out their work effectively. --- 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