Sir, – Keith Martin (November 24th) is correct that the 20th amendment enshrined local government in the Constitution.
However, he is incorrect to say that abolishing town councils would require a referendum, as section 28A.2 says “There shall be such directly elected local authorities as may be determined by law . . .”.
Therefore local authorities can be created or abolished by an act of the Oireachtas, or a statutory instrument as the situation demands.
As Article 28A makes no mention of specific types of local authorities, like town councils, they have no constitutional protection from being abolished. – Yours, etc,