Half-baked council reform plan

The public response, thus far, to Minister Hogan’s proposals to abolish town councils and replace them with municipal authorities has been understandably muted.

Indeed, it is likely to remain so unless and until the minister has the basic courtesy to inform both the councillors and the electorate of what is involved in the so -called radical overhaul of local democracy. It is exceedingly difficult to formulate a coherent response, individually or collectively, in the absence of precise details of what is proposed.

There have been town council meetings that were long-winded and lacked focus, but those factors would not necessarily differentiate them from the happenings on occasions in the Houses of the Oireachtas.