Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the SPCs, I do not want to be pushing against the local authorities but the existing legislation mandates the local authority to sit a certain number of times a year and it is very tight.

I remember telling some of the first-time councillors that if they really wanted to push an agenda, they needed to go off and do their research, they needed to follow it up with the director, and they needed then to keep going. They will not get anything done at a meeting because it is just rushed through as there is a great deal on the agenda. If one just goes to the meetings, one will not really get anywhere. That means people need to take a great deal of time to understand the policy, to try to push it and to be in at the beginning because much of the time at those meetings we are told about things that have already happened.