Was a ‘misguided’ move to abolish Borough Council
Fine Gael TD and Assistant Government Whip Tony McLoughlin has said he believes efforts being made to reintroduce certain town and borough districts for areas with a population higher than 15,000 people would be warmly welcomed by the people of Sligo.
Deputy McLoughlin, who served as Mayor of Sligo on four occasions before being elected to Dáil Éireann in 2011, believes that “it was somewhat misguided” to abolish all of the town and borough councils in 2014 given the historic importance and civic functionality of many of these local executives. He is backing plans by Minister for State at the Department of Local Government, John Paul Phelan to bring back the borough councils.
“Ultimately the decision to abolish the councils was a cost cutting exercise at a time of national emergency. However, in my opinion it is almost as if the baby was thrown out with the bathwater in some regards. This decision ultimately reduced the number of County Councillors nationally by almost 800 and as a result this has left a massive void on the ground locally in terms of political representation. For historic Boroughs like Drogheda, Kilkenny and Sligo, it was as if a piece of our heritage and our identity had been withdrawn.
“Sligo has a large urban area to administer locally and a Borough Council which dated back over 400 years. I believe that these particular types of councils should have been exempt from the reforms The local electoral boundary review is now currently under way, with a decision on these new boundaries expected by June 2018 and it is hoped that within the terms of reference of this review that Sligo Borough Council could be reinstated from 2019,” he said.