Local Government (Support for Elected Members) Bill 2024: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-10 ============================================================ Robbie Gallagher (FF), Labour Panel The Minister of State is welcome back to the Chamber. In the last Government we debated councillors' terms and conditions with him and he always had a very receptive ear. I know the councillors have a friend when they have him in that particular role. I wish him well in it. I commend Senator Frances Black on introducing this legislation. In principle, I have no issue in supporting it. Any opportunity we get in this House and in the Lower House to discuss the role of the county councillor is a welcome opportunity and one that we should all grasp. There is no doubt that the role of the county councillor has changed significantly in recent years and it really is a full-time job for a part-time salary. As the previous speaker alluded to, progress has been made, but much more progress needs to be made and I think Government recognises that. It is positive that it has formed a task force on all aspects of the role of the county councillor and local authority set-ups. I commend the members of the AILG and LAMA on their input into that task force. From the feedback I am getting, it is not a talking shop. People are taking the role very seriously. I sincerely hope that there is a positive outcome to that. It is due to report by February, which is fairly optimistic bearing in mind the volume of work involved in it, and the Minister of State might give us more clarity on that. I sincerely hope it is able to stick to the strict deadline it has given itself and to all the councillors who have fed into that. The role of the county councillor, as many speakers have alluded to this evening, it is a very expensive one. They are there in their community 24-7. They are on call wherever they go. They are meant to be experts on planning, housing, climate change, policy and economic development. The role that constitutes the councillor currently is endless and they need more help. The basic first principle is that they have to be paid for the hugely important role they do. The amendment put forward by Government is very sensible. I plead with the authors of this legislation to reflect on that. Their Bill is very worthy, as I have said during my contribution. However, it is important that we let the work that the task force has undertaken to conclude. Nothing should overshadow that at this time. Perhaps the sentiments as expressed in Senator Black's Bill can be encompassed in the work that the task force is doing. I am certainly happy to support the Government amendment and I plead with my colleagues on the other side, Senator Black and her colleagues, to go along with that and to give the task force space to conclude the very valuable work it is doing. --- 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