TDs and Senators' rights to sit on local authorities will end in 2004 despite the objections of Independent TDs, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said last night.
However, the Minister offered to bring forward amendments to the Local Government Act to ensure national politicians were kept properly informed of developments in their constituencies.
Wicklow Independent TD Ms Mildred Fox, one of the strongest opponents of the change, rejected the offer: "He is talking about minutes and reports. That isn't worth a damn to any of us." Fine Gael last night backed the end of the dual mandate.
Ms Olivia Mitchell said breaking the link was necessary if the standing of local authority representatives was to be increased. However, she accepted that banning Oireachtas members from local authority seats would mean that some of them would eventually end up losing their Dail or Seanad places to a local challenger.
The Local Government Bill, 2000, which offers £8,000 a year to local authority members, is unlikely to be pushed to a vote by the Government for some time.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has refused to accept the Minister for the Environment's request to rejoin an all-party Dail committee to look at corporate funding of political parties.
Yesterday, the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, insisted the Minister should let the Dail's Environment Committee debate Labour's Private Members Bill banning corporate payments.
