Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a minor point which I raised with the Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government last week.

It highlights yet again our lack of oversight of local authorities and I want to place it on the record of the committee, especially when we see media reports in The Sunday Timesof council chambers under a local government reform programme that is meant to reduce the cost of local government engaging in lavish public expenditure of taxpayers' money. People are now paying property taxes directly into the local authorities yet they see in a number of local authorities, particularly in the Dublin area, large sums of money being spent on rennovating council chambers, with more than €500 being spent on chairs and so on.

There is a broader issue here in that when central Government makes a decision, the trickle-down effect of the cost at a local level does not come under the same level of scrutiny, and I wanted to put that on the record. We have corresponded with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform previously about our frustration at not being able to examine these areas, and this is another example of it.