Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When it is ready we should meet straightaway and go through it because it will be hot, live, available in black and white and people will pay more attention to it.

My other point is on how people generally interact with their local authority. I have always believed that if somebody has an issue, he or she should be able to discuss it privately with the local council. Some councils have rooms available and some do not, but it is very important. Let us say there are four or five windows where people can ask for assistance. The person should be able to respectfully say, "I would like to speak to somebody privately about a matter". Otherwise, it is in a public place and other people can listen to everybody's problems and issues. Where somebody has a serious matter he or she wishes to discuss it is important that he or she can go into a room and talk to the person concerned. That is respectful of people. It is wrong that people should have to stand in line to discuss their business in a public place, where anybody within earshot can hear everything they say. We should address that. If it means making more rooms available to the public, we should do that. It would show respect for the individual at the point of interaction.

I wish to raise another point. According to the public press, there is a significant problem between the administration and the elected representatives. I am not referring to a particular place. Does the NOAC deal with that? If there are ongoing significant and serious difficulties between a manager of a county and its public representatives and they do not appear to be resolvable, what solutions, if any, can the NOAC offer for that? Is there a best practice the body could suggest? Let us say the NOAC is doing its audits of councils. In those audits it could perhaps review the press commentary for the previous six months to see what is happening and what the issues are. It might be able to sort out the issues that arise. There might be cases where senior officials or the senior official will not attend meetings in a particular town.

There may be good reasons for this. I do not know because I am not on that particular council, but it happens and it is not acceptable that it should continue to happen. There should be a way to intervene. I am not necessarily saying it should be NOAC but somebody should be able to say it is the role of the manager and the council to work together, and, without attributing blame, state a council is dysfunctional if it is not working and then make it work. It is a serious issue. I know it may be a rare issue but it is happening and it needs to be addressed.