Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I have a couple of comments and will then ask questions. I commend NOAC. I am a big fan and supporter of the work it does. Those of us on the committee who have spent a lot of time trying to get a read on what exactly is going on in local authorities value NOAC's annual reports and wait for them with anticipation, which probably says we need to get out more often. It is very valuable information. Sometimes I think organisations such as NOAC, which put significant time into collating and publishing information, wonder whether anybody is listening or paying attention. Many members of the committee do so and if we could get more of this type of information more frequently, we would all be much better off. I genuinely compliment the witnesses on this.

It might be useful to bring NOAC before the committee soon after the 2018 report is out. Obviously this has been said. We have started to do this with a number of agencies. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency publishes important reports and it has given a commitment that when a report is published, it will let us know in advance and we will schedule a meeting with it. Normally, we schedule two or three months in advance. If we know the date NOAC intends to publish the 2018 report, we can try to schedule an appearance before the committee as early as possible. The 2017 report is great but it is a little dated for our purposes.

If we bring NOAC before us to discuss the 2018 report, it would be good to have an opportunity to flag issues that some of us would like to have addressed in the 2019 report. We are doing this with some of the agencies to see what information we think would be useful to track. I torture many local authorities with freedom of information requests to get additional information. For example, I am researching the number of houses being built and in stock that are fully wheelchair accessible. Most local authorities can tell me how many adapted houses they have but they cannot tell me whether houses are built and designed for people who live in them with wheelchairs. In fact, some cannot give me any information. I have some sympathy with what NOAC struggles with.

My experience is there is a mixed bag of quality in the responses from local authorities to information requests in that some give good quality information and some very poor information. Is that fair comment? I do not ask the witnesses to name individual local authorities but is there anything we can do to assist in our engagement with the Department to improve the quality and consistency of information, which is key for NOAC? In either the 2016 or 2017 report, there was a problem with the return of data on household completions, which meant NOAC did not feel in a position to authoritatively say what was the output of local authority houses. If the commission cannot do it, nobody else can. Is there anything we can do to assist in that regard?

Second, we have been having a conversation inside our party about the audit element of local authorities. For example, the Committee of Public Accounts has significant powers to hold Accounting Officers and Departments to account. No similar function exists for local authorities in respect of public scrutiny. Does NOAC have views on how to strengthen not just the oversight role and data publication but also that accountability role? There are audits of local authorities and they are published on the Department's website but they then just quietly disappear and nobody pays any attention afterwards. Does NOAC think there is a role for the Oireachtas? Could there be a stand-alone committee that would have functions similar to the Committee of Public Accounts but specifically looking at local authorities? Is that something NOAC has thought about or teased out? Can the commission give those of us who would like to see greater scrutiny advice? We would like to commend those local authorities that are doing a good job, and there are many doing good work, but also challenge them where there are some issues.

My final question concerns a sensitive issue, namely, how we deal with allegations of improper practice or fraud in local authorities. I will not outline any particular instance but serious allegations have been made against local authorities on planning matters, for example, or on payment of contractors and subcontractors. My understanding is that in those instances there is a kind of in-house process where the local authority investigates and if those matters then need to be handed on to other appropriate authorities, they are handed on. Where such allegations are made, does NOAC have views on what is best practice and whether there is need for legislative reform or institutional reform? There has been a high-profile case in one local authority in the north west, which has been widely reported in the newspapers. The Department has been investigating this for a number of years and the case was in the High Court. For somebody who is trying to get to a conclusion of a case like that, it is a very opaque and impenetrable process. Have the witnesses thoughts they would like to share with the committee in this regard?