Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will but first I was obliged to explain this aspect could be lost. I consider it to be a strength of the Irish community system, never mind the local government system.

It is a paradox to talk about the ratio of county councillors to members of the population, while at the same time an unelected regional authority is proposed with two for everyone in the audience. It seems a crazy way of dealing with regional authorities.

The third issue concerns staffing. The Chairman has made the same point on resources, including buildings. On a practical level, if former urban district councils and town commissions are included - which would have been better resourced in the county council - the staff are already in those locations. It may not be viable to have somebody going from one end of Cork to the other - that county involves the greatest change in numbers, along with Tipperary. Will we not end up with a lot of people in the wrong place? It will be pretty difficult to have a uniform system of service delivery within the range of municipal districts in the context of that change and with the backdrop of a reduction in numbers rather than an increase.

In areas that have lost an urban council, there is an expectation that they will continue to have the same level of service. On a practical level that seems to be a serious problem and I do not see where it will be addressed. There is not an even spread of staffing around the country. Some of the counties that have grown rapidly in recent times have slimmer staff numbers so there will be an unequal level of service in, or an inability to service, these municipal authorities. Has that been considered in terms of costs rather than savings?