John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness for the comprehensive statement. I will put the witnesses in the picture. The committee has met many witnesses over the past number of weeks and many of the issues raised by the delegation have been raised in other meetings. Members are quite familiar with them. The delegation's attendance today is quite important in terms of the schedule of our meetings as many of the matters are very directly related to the local authorities, the Minister or the Department. We are having today's meeting in the context of having the Minister, officials of the new Department and representatives of sitting county managers before us soon. Councillor Lacy spoke about the obvious delays in the process and that has been well flagged. He is correct in that we see it as a block. The attendance of the delegation is in the context of that programme so we thank the witnesses for their contributions.

A number of people have signalled that they wish to ask questions. I will be slightly biased and allow one of the former members of the association, Deputy Brophy, in first.