Creighton urges cut in number of councils

A GOVERNMENT junior minister has said the number of local councils should be cut drastically and described the salaries and expenses paid to councillors as “preposterous”.

Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton made the comments in the wake of an Irish Examiner investigation which found county and city councillors were paid more than €23.5 million in 2010 in salaries and expenses.

Ms Creighton said: “It is preposterous, and that’s after a huge amount of savings. I don’t want to devalue the work they do, it’s just there are too many of them. We need less councillors and I mean significantly less, I think there should be about a third of what we currently have. If you paid them properly and gave them proper powers, I think that it would be money well spent.