Greens welcome end of dual mandate, call for more reforms

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday April 04, 2003 15:19 by Graham Caswell - Green Party

Press Release

The dual mandate, whereby politicans can sit on local councils as well as in the Dáil, is coming to an end. Its about time.

The Green Party has given its qualified support to the second stage of the Local Government Bill. Green Party TD, Paul Gogarty, speaking in the Dáil today said, “The Green Party wholeheartedly supports any steps to end the dual mandate. This Bill could well prove to be a tentative first step towards making local government fluid, energetic and transparent.”

However parts of this Bill were flawed, he stated. “Removing directly elected Mayors is a backward step. To date the government has only paid lip service to the concept of decentralisation. They have failed to give any extra decision making powers to local government instead they have simply chosen to relocate centralised Government Departments to a few favoured constituencies.”

“While we had a new semi-professional councillor created, even more power was taken out of the hands of locally elected representatives in favour of county managers and other non-elected officials. Waste management is one shameful example of where attempts are being made to steamroll valid local opposition to costly and environmentally damaging incineration technology. This begs the question where is the democratic accountability?”

Indicating his party’s support for the end of double jobbing, Deputy Gogarty stressed that empowering local Government should also be a priority for this Government. He also suggested electoral reform: “In addition to giving more powers to local government and creating a clear distinction between local and national politics the creation of single seat constituencies with single transferable vote and a top-up list would take some of the pressure off those members of the Oireachtas who are afraid that they will lose their Dáil or Seanad seats without being members of a local authority.”

All of the new Green Party TD’s resigned their Council seats within months of being elected to the Dáil.