The local boundary report issued yesterday sets out Minister Phil Hogans plan to add fifty extra Councillors in Dublin. In the week that hard pressed Dubliners have struggled to pay Fine Geal’s unfair and anti-Dublin property tax Minister Hogan has published his plan to spend their property tax to save government party seats at the next local elections.

Minister Hogans plan to increase the number of Councillors in Dublin from 131 to 183 is arrogant, unnecessary, costly and an insult to everybody in Dublin who paid their property tax this week. This proposal demonstrates Fine Geals’ complete disregard for ordinary people.

Dublin already has too many Councillors. Currently in the four local authorities there are 131 Councillors representing a population of approximately 1.3m. Just to put this in perspective, New York City made up of the five boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island with a population of more than 8million people has 51 City Councillors. Yet Dublin with 1.3million people has not one, but four local authorities, four county managers, four Lord Mayors, four chambers filled with 131 Councillors. Now Minister Hogan is going to actually increase the number of Councillors in Dublin by 50!

I would challenge the Minister to find anyone in Dublin, except a government party councillor or candidate who thinks we need more Councillors. The number of Councillors in Dublin should be more than halved. This would reduce parish pump type politics that involves multiple councillors falling over each other to get a pot hole fixed and would lead to more effective, less costly and more representative local Government.

This is a bad day for local government and a bad day for Dublin. The Minister has failed and insulted the people of Dublin.