Mr. Peter Hynes:

Le cúnamh Dé; we will get to that. I wonder if that could be described as harassment by the Chair.

We would suggest that the role of local government is about two things: making better places and making better communities. At the end of the day if we are not making better places and making better communities, we are not doing our job. How we do it is a question of detail and debate but that is the core job. Since 2014 we have been challenged by the Department in the main and central government to be a lead development agency. That is about enterprise, investment and jobs. We are also a delivery agency. A report to be published reasonably soon indicates that local authorities pick up funding from more than 30 agencies and Departments, which brings its own challenges in what we do and how we do it. We are definitely a delivery agency and see ourselves as such.

Regarding vision, when we talk about Mayo - those from other counties will have the same kinds of words - we talk about a county that is sustainable, inclusive, prosperous and proud. That is our goal, and towns and villages are a big part of that. Looking at the challenges that towns and villages pose, the first problem we have is the number of them. There are 460 settlements of more than 500 people spread across the island based on the 2016 census. They were developed for particular purposes. Some are market towns, some are crossing towns and some are creamery towns. By and large in most instances the purpose has moved on. As I keep saying to our own people, Mayo has approximately 30 settlements of that size - above 250. If we did not have them, we would not be building them. Therefore, the status is in question. Most of them are suffering decline and are under pressure. For some it is an existential threat; it is that serious.

This initiative on vacancy is welcome because if we do not crack the issue of people living in towns than we are at nothing. The challenges relate to commercial activity. Commercial activity has moved to edge of town; it has moved to big box; it has moved to regional centres; it has moved to forecourts; and it has moved online. I do not know how much of it will come back. That change has led to environmental degradation and all the problems of anti-social behaviour that go with underpopulated streets that have no casual supervision. Many of our smaller towns and villages are stuck in such a continual downward spiral.

Regarding responses from the sector, there is considerable knowledge, information and experience in this area. The key response is about community engagement and empowerment. The second relates to having a vision-led and achievable plan for what can be done. The third relates to investment. There must be some balancing of the advantages of investing in small towns and villages. For residential purposes and every other purpose there must be incentives. There must be collaborative implementation with local authority leadership. We strongly contend that the local authority is the appropriate body to be challenged to provide that leadership and to provide the services to accompany it.

In our case, we use a form of community engagement and planning, called "community futures." It is a Scottish model that we have been using for more than a decade. Thirty communities have been through the process and we find it very good. Other local authorities use other community planning and engagement techniques. We follow that up with village design statements. They set out, albeit not in a formal planning context, what we are trying to achieve in physical terms in the towns and villages. That is delivered, in our case, by a municipal district, MD, team. We watched last week's committee meeting and the suggestion from Free Market that there should be a town architect in every town. There are many towns and I do not believe the resources are available to do that.