Mr. Joe Rynn:

I will not reiterate the points my colleagues have already made. In terms of the point which Senator Higgins and Deputy Brady referenced, consultation is meaningful when it involves taking our points on board, engaging with us and possibly reaching agreement. We are in a process here whereby things are more or less being imposed. We are not at an agreement stage. Engagement and consultation is about agreeing on a common plan and course of action with members. We do not have agreement on where we are going and we need that for us to engage with and implement a plan.

Members also discussed the issue of volunteers, which has been mentioned briefly by my other colleagues. From our perspective, the remoteness of the board will have a real risk in terms of engagement with volunteers, as we have highlighted in our submission. Large-scale regional structures do not have the same presence in or connection to local communities. That loss will be evident very quickly and will most likely have a detrimental effect on how volunteers engage with services. We are very concerned about that.

It is the same thing with the boards. They have been built up through local input. We are looking at a very different structure now, very much a top-down regional model. The boards were organic and grew from local communities. People understood their areas and had a very strong understanding of county needs. Every county has different requirements; the Deputies know that themselves from their own work. Large regional structures do not have that input. We would be concerned that the dynamic of the regional boards will be lost within the new boards. We have also highlighted that in our submission.