Campaign to keep our Town Councils

I have helped launch a facebook campaign to keep our Town Councils.
More details at facebook.com/keepourcouncils

It is time to fight back against this undemocratic proposal.

Of the €500 million in savings only €6 million is being achieved by
removing Town Councils (Source AMAI)

Ireland will have the lowest level of councillors per capita in the EU
(Source AMAI)

The removal of Town Councils which are mainly located in rural areas
is another attack on rural life and a further centralisation of Irish
politics and democracy.

118 per head of population per Councillor in France,
250 per head of population in Sweden and 350 in Germany.
This rises to 610 in Spain and 1100 per head of population in Greece
and Belgium.

Here in Ireland the figure is one Councillor to every 2,336 people.

Only the United Kingdom has a higher ratio with one Councillor to
every 2,603 per head of population.

Phil Hogan wants to increase that to 1 for every 4,800.

The big lie. 800 Town Councilllors are expensive.
The big truth. 800 Town Councillors cost the country 3million a year.

But what about the hundreds of millions of savings?
These are coming about through voluntary redundancies and cost saving
measures which could be done without abolishing every town council in
Ireland.

The big lie. We have too many councillors for such a small country.

The big truth. We have the lowest level of councillors in Europe
except for UK. In Sweden there;s a councillor for every 200 people. In
Ireland it's one for 3,500.