Tramore Town Council has vowed, unsurprisingly, to resist any attempt to abolish local authorities such as themselves.
At their June meeting, Councillors spoke as one, stressing that local public representatives had the greatest knowledge of people’s needs in their respective areas and were therefore best placed to campaign on their behalf.
All insisted that their abolition would be both undemocratic and disgraceful.
They were responding to a letter from the President of the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, Councillors Frank Geelan, to Cllr Maxine Keoghan, Tramore Council’s delegate to that body.
The letter drew attention to the existence of an internal Fianna Fáil submission, to the forthcoming White Paper on Local Government Reform, “which effectively proposes the abolition of practically all Town Councils and their replacement by District Councils”.
The letter stated that the proposed District Councils would, in effect, be the present County Council Electoral Area Committees and that all members elected to those bodies would be County Councillors.
t added: “This scenario has been promoted for many years by the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the City and County Managers Association and in the last year by Colm McCarthy in his Bord Snip report.
“It would seem the FF party is prepared to sacrifice Town Local Government to appease those calling for the implementation of the McCarthy Report.”
It was agreed, on the proposal of Cllr Paddy O’Callaghan, to send letters of protest to Fianna Fáil, its Environment Spokesman and Environment Minister John Gormley.
