TD’s should have their pay cut in order to give more resources to local Councillors, according to a People Before Profit representative.

Local Councillor for the Ballyfermot/Drimnagh ward Hazel De Nortúin told The Hard Shoulder that the administrative duties of Councillors have increased over the years, and that their pay and resources should reflect this.

“When I was looking at the conversations around what’s going to be in place there for TD’s, they’re looking at, like - you have the Dáil office, you have a constituency office, you have secretaries, you have admins, you have researchers,” she said.

“Even if we got support for half a role of an admin worker, I could do so much with that.

“So, I would like to think that we would value the work that local councillors do... But I also think that we could use it as a bigger resource about access to politics as well.”

Salaries

Currently, local Councillors are paid an annual salary of €28,145.

There is also an additional €5,000 given to those who meet their attendance quotas, according to Cllr De Nortúin.

However, she said that this quota is hard to reach, as the role is considered to be part-time.

“A lot of [Councillors] will have a legal background, or a lot of people would have a different job,” she said.

“I think the role is changing, and you can see a lot of Councillors are coming out of that role because they’re saying it’s unsustainable.

“It’s becoming more of a full-time job year on year, so it’s harder to do those two jobs; you can’t do both of them, you’re only doing half of each.”

A woman in an office holds a stack of files, Alamy

Independent TD for Cork North Central Ken O’Flynn agreed that additional supports for Councillors are needed.

However, he said pay increases should only be offered if the role was expanded – and should not impact the salary of elected TD’s.

“I think when it comes to support for Councillors - bearing in mind now, I’ve gone from being a local Councillor with one local authority area to a TD servicing five local authority areas from Mallow to Cork – the encompassing is large, you do need a staff for that,” he said.

“Is there a need for additional supports for Councillors? I think there probably is.

“In-house, I think local authorities need to look at that... I think perhaps we should be looking at reducing the amount of Councillors around the country and providing full-time effective Councillors – and then you could pay them accordingly.

“It’s interesting, you know, the first hit is, ‘Let’s hit the TD’s - let’s halve their salaries and raise our own. I don’t think that works.”

Cllr De Nortúin said that increasing support for Councillors would help to bring more diversity into politics.