Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect, that can be very elastic. It can be used and interpreted in different ways. There is €200 million flowing from the Department to 31 local authorities. The members of local authorities are caught in a situation where they are completely sidelined. That is not true in all cases but councillors are completely sidelined and bypassed in many cases. They have no means of holding anyone to account. How are projects selected? Are they the pet projects of the senior officials that rock and roll under these schemes? That appears to be the case in different counties. The situation varies from county to county but that is the practice. The position of councillors is difficult enough already. It is a very difficult job but it is made extremely difficult when they see a Hymac machine starting to excavate a site and they have no idea where it came from, who is funding it, who selected the project or what it costs. Councillors are accountable to members of the public who might buttonhole them. To the public, they are the local authorities. The perception of the public, and rightly so, is that councillors are the council and that they make the decision that money will go to a particular project. If one conducted a vox pop, 98% of the people on the street in any town or village in the country would say that. If asked who made a decision on a project, the public would say it was the council. If asked who is the council, the public would say it is the councillors. That is who they see and elect. The officials do not interface as much with the public. They do not have to go to them to get elected. Ms Hurley is telling me there is no straight line. There are no mechanisms that mean these decisions come from the council chamber, the strategic policy committees or anywhere else in the council. It is the senior officials who have the power and are using these funds. Given the points I have made, what can be done about that from an official point of view? I understand there is a role for Ministers but I am asking Ms Hurley, as the Accounting Officer, what can be done. It is an awful mess.