Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If there is a significant gap, that will have to be taken into account. The delivery will be assessed based on the criteria the local authority has laid down in terms of how it wants to measure itself.

Let me explain where I come from on this. Whether it was a privilege or an honour, I was once a member of the south eastern health board, for a period of nine years. The way the board worked out its budget during those years, between 1991 and 1999, was an eye-opener for me in terms of service delivery plans. One could see exactly where the money was earmarked for delivery, to the extent that if one was on the community care committee, one could see which organisations were getting money and how much. As a member of the health board, one could suggest changes and get support to change an allocation.

This was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the pressure points and prioritise which area to which moneys should be allocated. I believe this is a principle by which local authorities and their committees could operate also and that is where I am coming from on this. I saw at first hand how people could be given discretion to move moneys allocated around to deliver results for key organisations that had been ignored by bureaucracy for far too long. This also provided an opportunity for outcomes to be measured and if necessary, one could come along the following year and say this or that did or did not work or was not implemented properly. Adjustments could be made or other areas could be prioritised. The service plan concept worked well in the old health board system. While that system had problems, it did not have as many as people see in the system since then.

To return to the issue raised by Deputy Murphy, a workforce plan is required in each local authority. That work is going on currently in the context of the reform. Far less administration work will be required because of the changes we are making in the context of the town councils. Tipperary, for example, has seven town councils and two county councils. This ties up a lot of people, but that will not be necessary in the new arrangements, in a Tipperary county council entity. These people will be able to do other things, apart from being tied up in administrative arrangements such as annual reports, annual audits, corporate plans, development plans and so on. This will no longer be necessary because that will be done at county level. This is the raison d'être of what we want to achieve, to have an integrated approach, less duplication and less waste and administration so that we can prioritise the areas the Deputy spoke about, in terms of administrative structures.

Officials from my Department have been working with local authorities on a workforce planning exercise for the past year. Hopefully, in the context of the employment ceilings in place, they will be able to release staff from some duties and place them in the priority areas mentioned by the Deputy.