Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On county managers and their projects, I told them that they would have to raise the issue of projects at council meetings to ensure the members were happy with the applications made.

Deputies Fitzmaurice and Ó Cuív spoke about the dual mandate. Removing it was the biggest mistake ever made. The Deputies know my views on the issue. Taking Deputies out of county councils was the biggest mistake ever made because at least they know what legislation is passing through the Dáil. When the dual mandate was removed, the happiest people were the county managers in every corner of the country. I did my best to oppose it and there were those who supported me in that regard. The abolition should never have happened. Under the old Western Health Board, there was accountability. When there was a county and a regional structure in place, there was accountability. Now we have the HSE and other such bodies. The media believed the best thing one could ever do was to keep elected public representatives away from everything. We are elected; we are the ones who put our names on the ballot paper and we are the representatives of the people.

The local improvement scheme was mentioned. It is a good scheme and working well, but I need to obtain additional funding for it. I need to consider the areas that are in more need than the ones benefiting from the allocation. This year I capped the allocation for householders at €1,200. Although it went unnoticed, it will result in a fairer system. Members know that people who are paying their local property tax and, in some cases, water charges because they are included in group schemes are paying. Allocations of €1,500, €2,000, €3,000 or €4,000 were expected in such cases, but I have capped the sum at €1,200, which will help the bigger schemes. It is only fair.

Deputy Fitzmaurice referred to voluntary groups. We have great voluntary groups in this country and among the greatest are the Tidy Towns committees. I was the first Minister to give a separate allocation to every Tidy Towns group throughout the country and I did so for two reasons. First, the Government appreciates the work the Tidy Towns committees are doing. Second, we are thanking the volunteers for the work they do. Most importantly, the volunteers are doing work the local authorities are not doing and that the State should be doing. But for the voluntary sector, this would be a poorer country. The local authorities should stop hindering, in any way, community and voluntary groups. Pencil pushers in the local authorities should not be trying to affect the good work being done by Tidy Towns groups or any other voluntary group. The local authorities and any other body funded by the State should be working for and supporting volunteers, not putting obstacles in their way. No group should have to be brought before a committee. We should be thanking, encouraging and helping them, not putting obstacles in their way. I do not want some individual who has nothing else to be doing to be considering ways by which progress could be held back.

On CCTV systems, we were trying to get the scheme into the Department, but we encountered some difficulties with data protection. The scheme is now in place. Monitoring CCTV systems seems to be the difficulty. It is a question of who is monitoring. We will have to wait and see what happens in that regard.

Deputy Fitzmaurice talked about smaller towns and villages. This year I sent two instructions in that regard. When I recently met the county managers or chief executives of all of the local authorities, I gave them a calendar of programmes for which I will be allocating funding this year. They now know the position on all programmes.