Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to make two points, one specific and a general one related to Deputy Murphy's comments. I welcome this from the Department. The education and training boards, ETBs, are saying openly that they have no staff. They are identifying the problems, so they are coming forward. The committee has a role in encouraging people in that regard. We cannot have good governance if they do not identify the gaps, inform us and then put pressure on the Department. If that is a process that has started, I welcome it. It is difficult to be on the ground and hearing about problems with computers and shared systems that should be sorted out but have not been sorted out, through no fault of the staff.

On the general point, we are about to amalgamate Galway city and county councils on no other basis than that bigger is better. We certainly are not learning-----