Mr. John O'Neill:

We have an enforcement inspectorate in Cork. The key issues in respect of enforcement are staffing, resources and a will to act. We have applied the staffing and resources in Cork. We did an exercise in recent years which found that we have received €3 million in back-payment of fees and contributions arising form enforcement activities. The exercise demonstrated that a strong enforcement regime and inspectorate will largely fund itself. In our case, it has provided resources and given us the confidence to have a good regime. We report on an annual basis to our members, which challenges us with respect to the various issues that arise.

While I take the points the Deputy raises, in our case resources have been provided by management and members and we have a good regime in place. I emphasise also that the inspectorate is largely self-financing. Enforcement is such a wide ranging issue that it often begs the question as to how long is a piece of string. The larger local authorities, those with greater resources, have a fairly successful regime. Nevertheless, it is clearly a challenging issue and difficulties will always arise. The courts also have a role to play in supporting local authorities in their enforcement efforts. My experience is that we have been given resources to address enforcement at local level and we are doing so reasonably successfully.