Deputy Catherine Murphy: At least Mr. McElvaney is being honest in not encouraging women to become involved in politics. However, I do not agree with him. We need diversity in councils to bring new ideas and so on. Female participation in politics is to be encouraged and it is disappointing to hear it is not being encouraged by Mr. McElvaney's organisation. Municipal district authorities, essentially, are glorified area committees. One of the demands that will be put on councillors relates to the so-called direct relationship between the local property tax - it is not really a local property tax because it is collected nationally and we are not sure how much of the money raised will be delivered to the local authorities - and the general purpose fund which is being dramatically reduced. The local property tax is a replacement tax and there will be great expectations for councillors when people see they are paying a great deal of money without any improvement in services. The demands on councillors will change dramatically because there is a perceived relationship in that regard, but at the same time there will not be any additional funding. How do the councillors believe this issue will be handled at district council level? The legislation appears to indicate that the manager or CEO will talk to the district council before the county budget is decided on, but that does not mean anything has to be included. Even if something is included, the proposal is a schedule will be drawn up for the following year for roads and footpaths. I served for a long time on both a town and a county council. Town councils do work that is entirely different from the work county councils do. Can the councillors indicate if the discretionary fund will be available? Will it be sufficient for the district council to deliver services that have been provided by the town council? How will councillors handle complaints when it becomes clear that people want a better level of service, given that they believe they are paying for it? This is a missed opportunity and some of it is about ticking boxes to reduce numbers. There are perceived savings will not materialise because some of the town councils were almost funded completely by a town charge. There is not a huge amount of public funding and town councillors have been on a much lower salary than members of a county council. I ask the delegates about their organisation's funding. They have said 38 councils contribute funds to LAMA. The number of councils will be reduced to 31. How many of the 38 are town councils? Are they mainly county councils? Also, in meeting training needs, the legislation proposes training should be more focused and provided locally rather than being provided by way of a type of conference arrangement. What input has LAMA had in that regard?