Ms Mary Freehill:

I suppose the first thing to say is that this meeting and the previous meeting represent the first formal contact, involving a group of people outside central government, where business has been done. We thank the Chairman for facilitating that. It is the first time such an initiative has been taken. It is very important to recognise that we need much more interaction. The committee can talk to us, but we cannot talk to the committee. Perhaps we can see how that might be changed.

It was music to my ears to hear the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government say last week that it is time for the regions to play to their strengths. I think there has been a very welcome change in attitude. Historically, Ireland has been way behind many other countries in terms of the level of centrality of the system of governance. Maybe this is one of the good things that might come out of the process of local government reform. It is up to all of us to start working on this.

I would like to speak about economic growth. There is no doubt that IDA Ireland is very regionalised. It is working very well at that level. There is a need to connect that into the regional assemblies. We used to have two regional assemblies but we now have three. All of that has to bed down. More clarity is needed from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in terms of how we will work on that.

Deputy Crowe mentioned the use of nomenclature like NUTS II and NUTS III. I suggest there is very real meaning in that in so far as it presents us with the figures and what we have to deal with. A great deal of clarity is needed in that regard.

The regional assemblies are certainly up for it. We want to work. Although we are here from the European Committee of the Regions, we are also members of regional assemblies. If we are to work, the regional assemblies have to work. It is about everyone working together.

Senator Hayden asked whether this has really started. I am saying that we need a team approach. We had a meeting with Declan Kelleher, who is Ireland's ambassador at the permanent representation in Brussels, when we were in that city last week. It was a welcome first step because it allows us to start moving on this and to operate in a much more coherent way.

Senator Hayden asked about the centralisation of procurement and about the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, SICAP. Both of those questions can be answered in the same way. A very centralised approach to all of this was probably taken. I wonder whether a sufficient percentage of value was assigned to track records, to local knowledge and to what had been done in the past when projects were being weighed and evaluated under SICAP. I have questions about the way that was done. Perhaps the same thing applies to procurement, although that is saving money and probably creates much more transparency than we might otherwise have had. I think these things always have to be looked at again.

I would like to respond to Deputy Durkan, who was a councillor at one stage.