Mr. Pat McLoughlin:

It is fair to state we do not have teeth. Giving us more teeth would probably be problematic given the independence of the local government sector. I would argue, however, that the local government efficiency review group, of which I was chair, did not have teeth. Neither did the implementation group, yet the sector has made €587 million in savings since 2010. It has done so by leveraging the scale of local government at sectoral level, developing shared services, wherever appropriate, and comparing and contrasting performance across the individual local authorities. We are certainly finding in our work that our reports are increasingly beginning to become embedded in the local authorities. The audit committees are reviewing it and discussing it with members, and members are challenging management on why their local authority compares poorly with others. It is not all about saying that the performance is below par. We see much potential in local authorities working together and sharing good practice. That is why we are working with the CCMA. We have an event where we are showcasing good practice in individual local authorities and challenging the sector to ask why it cannot be carried out in other local authorities. It is about our being able to highlight where we believe performance could be improved.

How the local authorities might use any savings accruing from improvements is a matter for them, both individually and at sectoral level. Given that there are only two staff and that we rely on CCMA and many of the local government and audit service staff to do our work, I believe the performance of the local government sector in terms of efficiency is much higher than that of any other sector of the economy. I might not agree with that when I am talking to the CCMA but the reality is that if one looks objectively at what the sector has saved since the efficiency review, one notes that of a little over 100 recommendations from the review group, 69 have been implemented or partially implemented. This is a high rate of performance. I argue that there were no teeth in that; it had to be done through co-operation and people working together at sectoral level.