Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives from the Department . Statements on strategy are important for the period 2021 to 2025. All of us have a role working with local authorities to provide the best service we can to people. There are many issues I wish to address in the Department's strategy to deal with local authorities.

I heard this morning that millions of euro worth of funding has been announced for Irish Water. I have concerns about Irish Water and local authorities. While Irish Water is an entity, local authorities play less of a part. There needs to be much more engagement between local authorities and Irish Water. There is an issue there. If a local authority wants to get a pipe fixed, everything has to go to Irish Water and then come back to local authorities. The timescale is long and plans are delayed. There needs to be more engagement with Irish Water and that needs to be a part of the strategy.

There was an excellent meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters yesterday which heard about the concerns of the disability sector and how disabled people feel they have been forgotten in this strategy. They feel there is no strategy for accommodating disabilities in the local authorities and in general. That is an area to address. Mental health is another. We are going though the Covid-19 pandemic and there is not a designated person in each local authority equipped to deal with people who are presenting with mental health issues. In 2021, someone needs to be assigned to every local authority, or a training course given, so that local authorities can deal with the needs of people.

There are no criteria in respect of homelessness. I can only speak from my own experience but I know people in homeless accommodation. I have seen people on housing lists whose need was not as urgent get housed before the homeless. There are 31 local authorities. Do they all have different strategies and do things differently? Are there absolute criteria?