Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have tracked its evolution and it was modest enough. There were changes and an elaborate gathering of information in order to make them. However, it did not fundamentally shift things like staffing and capital funding backed up for libraries and so on. It did not change very much. I take as an example County Meath and use the 1996 population figures, the ones I have in front of me. In 1996 Meath County Council had a staff of 645. In the same year Kerry County Council had a staff of 1,080. Even though there were 50,000 more people living in County Meath, Meath County Council had 300 fewer staff. It does not take a genius to figure out that services are poorer in a county the population of which is growing more rapidly. That has been the profile.