Mr. Tom McHugh:

I am not best placed to comment on rural towns and villages because my authority does not really have them. A few questions were raised about insurance. Most local authorities operate a community grant scheme. There is normally a scheme of grants to assist community organisations that incur insurance costs or overheads, including in my own authority in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

Other issues were raised. We have a direct labour force and contract for various services. All of our grass-cutting and roadside work is done by a combination of directly employed labour and contractors acting on our behalf. Our Tidy Towns people do community clean-ups and litter clean-ups. We assist them with that activity. We do not require insurance indemnity or whatever. We issue guidelines on the use of equipment and how people should operate on roadsides. We do not ordinarily allow people to work on our live carriageways.