A former mayor of Cashel says since the abolition of town councils, elected members no longer have the same level of input and the public has less of a say.
Tom Wood says that over 80% of the electoral area in Cashel would come out to vote, proving the interest in town councils was there.
He says back in 2014, there was a view within the public that tax payer money would be saved by the abolition of town councils, which he believes was exaggerated.
The Cashel man says town councils were central to addressing issues in their areas while the cost of having a town council was minimal.
“The nine elected members here on the town council in Cashel, if they were to draw down, we’ll say, their 100% entitlement each, for the nine in total was less than €50,000, it came to around €48,000. That was the financial cost of having a town council here at that level in Cashel. Here we had a town council working very, very well, and with the stroke of a pen, and for the sake of this so-called saving taxpayers’ money-as I said, €48,000 – the town council was abolished. ”
He says approximately 84 councils were abolished in June 2014, that people were unaware of what they were losing until it happened.
He added that members of the public used to see and get to know the elected members of the council in their towns, and that a lot more was achieved at a local level because of it.
Tom says it’s been widely accepted that the abolition shouldn’t have happened.
“The outcry was at local level, but of course, it wasn’t being heard at national level and there were very, very few – I think even at national government level – that were fighting for the retention of our town councils at the time. In fact, it was Brendan Howlin, who I’ve had contact with on a number of occasions shortly after the abolition, he was a Minister at the time. He admitted that it was a mistake, and in fact, he said he himself hadn’t given it enough thought at the time. It has been recognised right across the board that the abolition of our town councils was a mistake.”
