Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

To tag along with what Ms Graham just said, she put her finger on a nail there, in that it is not necessarily about the skill sets but it is about the enthusiasm. I can think of someone in my own area with great ideas. Sometimes we are top-heavy in local government. Our chief executives are dominant characters by their very nature in how they have come up to that position, as most of them have come up through the ranks. Not very many of them have come from the private sector, from somewhere else or, indeed, from overseas. This is the way, unfortunately, that we do local government, so it is the same people. They start in a local authority in a rural area and move into the city.

One can have very many skilled people in local government, including architects, landscape architects, parks designers and public realm people and when one gets enthusiasm, it carries the day and brings support with it. One does not necessarily need all of the skills. Enthusiasm carries one along in the public realm.

It is interesting because I am a landscape contractor by profession and I know everybody wants to have a property on the south side. I can take people to streets in my own town of Dún Laoghaire where there is not a vacant shop facing south. Aspect and orientation is a factor in respect of the sun. There are so many little facets to a place. A street can become activated and animated. We have seen this through the Covid-19 period, where so many places which had nothing now had people outside selling bits of food, coffee and so forth and there was improved paving or temporary facilities. These places have taken on a life of their own and a number of people have said to me that there are places within five or ten minutes of their house that they never knew existed.

There would be outdoor space, which improves community and local interaction. There are so many knock-on effects.

Again, I wish everybody well. I know many of the people here today are deeply involved with all of this. It is a tribute and the witnesses should keep going. Politicians come and go but what we have in common is that we call live in communities and villages. What is really good about what we have spoken about today is the question of a local vision and ambition. A regional vision can feed into our national plans. For the first time in a long time - I was a councillor for over 20 years and I am here for a few years - I see a layering process and where we are going. That is really important and I thank the witnesses for that.