Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the councillors and their colleagues. We make declarations every year, although my circumstances do not change from year to year. I would love to see a simple form that asks whether anything has changed in a person's circumstances from the commencement of their time as a councillor. That would be logical. If a person has bought or sold land, for example, he or she should include that information, but he or she should not have to go through the whole rigmarole and get a peace commissioner to sign it.

It would be good if we could bring about some change in that regard because we are inundated with paper and do the same thing every year when I respond with the same information. There has been no change from five years ago and I am sure it is the same for councillors. If a councillor has a house, a piece of ground or a business, that information is declared.

The delegates and their organisations are very influential. I ask them to, please, simplify things and cut out the nonsense because the information is declared on the first day a person is elected to the county council for a five-year term. If he or she is asked each year whether there has been a change in his or her circumstances and he or she says "No" when there has been a change, he or she could be in difficulty if something is unearthed. Only a small amount of housekeeping is needed. This also applies to Members of the Dáil and the Seanad. Next January I will go through the same things again, giving every little detail which has to be signed by a peace commissioner, but what is the point?