"Thank you Mr Chairman and I am very pleased to be addressing conference on the issue of local government this afternoon.
During the period of direct rule our local councils were the only locally elected decision makers in Northern Ireland. They saw us through some of the darkest days in our history when holding public office put your life and wellbeing at risk.
When the political situation here was dire, our councillors were in many ways on the front line between democracy and terrorism.
I personally would like to pay tribute to all of those councillors who represented this Party for those years, and gave so much of their time and effort in speaking up for the communities they represented so well.
It is recognised however that local government is in need of radical reform. Despite recent posturing by republicans, we hope that we now have a permanent and stable Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, and so local government needs to adapt and change to reflect that reality.
The decisions that we have taken in terms of local government will have an impact for many decades to come, and so it is important that we get it right.
What we need is the right balance of responsibility between the Assembly and local councils, so that they are not at odds with each other but rather that they work in partnership together.
It is also important that councils are accountable to their electorate and maintain their local identity.
The Democratic Unionist Party has always stood for getting taxpayers value for money. It is fairly clear that 26 councils in the Province is neither viable nor efficient.
Direct Rule Ministers had decided that we should have seven super councils, a decision that would have not only made local government remote, but also effectively repartition Northern Ireland, giving Republicans control of the West.
Our Minister, Arlene Foster stopped this.
It was because of devolved government at Stormont that we were able to do this, and whilst those on the fringes of Unionism have argued that we should have no Assembly, the DUP has always advocated having a fully functioning devolved institution so that we could take control of our own destiny.
Perhaps others on the fringes would be happy to hand over the west of the Bann to Republicans. We are not. We wanted to protect Unionists in the West and so we scrapped the 7 council model and instead opted for an 11 council model which would see the majority of councils remain under Unionist control.
The Boundary Commissioner has now reported back on those new boundaries and public enquiries will now follow. We must remember that we need to have the best interests of Northern Ireland in mind when we examine those new boundaries and council groupings.
Our Minister also announced that there would be new governance arrangements that would ensure the protection of all rights of people in Northern Ireland, and allow fair and transparent decision making at a local level.
Checks and balances were not only important for Unionists who may find themselves in the minority in the West, but also for new councils in those areas were nationalists have never had a majority before such as the Banbridge, Craigavon and Armagh council.
Rejuvenating local government does not mean that it is being watered down. Quite the opposite. It is essential that we have strong local government to champion the needs of the local community. The new councils must provide strong and dynamic leadership and work in conjunction with central government to deliver the aims of the Programme for Government.
At the same time, they must be efficient, effective and provide best value for money for the tax payer. What people on the ground want to see is delivery and a stop to wasting their hard earned money.
The institutions at Stormont and local government must work together to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland. Just looking back over the past 18 months we have seen how important it has been. When people throughout the country found their homes flooded, it was essential that we took action, and whilst it was the DUP Finance Minister and DUP Environment Minister who took the lead in providing compensation packages, the Executive turned to local government in order to execute the delivery of the compensation strategy.
Indeed, local government is often the most effective delivery unit when it comes to these types of things. That is why a number of additional functions and powers have been handed over to councils.
If local government is to genuinely provide leadership and shape local communities then they had to be given control over a number of services in order to achieve this.
Significant functions from the Department of Regional Development, Social Development, the Environment have been agreed to be transferred, as have some functions from Invest NI, some housing functions and responsibility for local tourism promotion.
Councils will also assume responsibility for planning, regeneration, building control, environmental health and a variety of roads functions.
In order to provide the kind of efficient and appropriate council structure we seek, new councillors must be equipped with the skills they will need to see this programme of change progress. Only last week the Environment Minister Sammy Wilson announced that the transitional committees will be set up so that once the new councils are elected they can get to work without any delay.
Let us hope that Sinn Fein will stop being obstructive and the Executive at Stormont will meet so that there is no unnecessary delay in meeting our target date of 2011.
Conference, your DUP councillors have built up a reputation for working hard at local government over many decades, and it is your DUP Ministers who have been shaping the future of local government for many years to come.
Thank you."
