Mr. Michael McCarthy:

I thank the Senator. I wish to put on the record my appreciation of his strong support for NOAC, and the number of interactions that we have had about how we do our business and how we can be supported in what we aim to do. Our initial conversation a few years ago was about the profile - or lack of it - of the commission. I took those comments on board. They were very important, particularly as they came from the Senator, who has such extensive experience in local government, going back as far as 1991 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Through the vocational panels in the Seanad, the Senator has his finger on the pulse of local government.

That is important because there is a link between the vocational panel Senators and local government that is really valuable and vital in being a channel back to the national Parliament. They can raise the issues or challenges local government is facing and how it feels they might be addressed. We recognise the deficit in communications at that point and we have a communications and customer service working group. In recent times we have set about a detailed process of mapping out our stakeholders, be they across the local government network, the AILG, the various Departments and State agencies and that wider array of services that are provided by our local authorities. We subsequently engaged in a process of rebranding and we also got a new website. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit and everything was back online. We are now getting out there in person again.

One of the last NOAC functions I had before the restrictions came in was speaking on behalf of the organisation at the AILG event in Longford, which was really important because you are in a room with elected members from all of the local authorities and you are able to directly speak to them. One of the disadvantages at that stage that we identified was the kind of disconnect between the elected member and the commission, because we have strong links with the CCMA, the LGAS and the Department, with which we have a lot of interaction. We are addressing that particular disconnect. We have already pointed out that the validation visits will return in-person in August with the 31 chairs of the audit committees. Getting behind that, however, and peeling away the layers in the context of the elected members is important because it gives us the unique insights into the elected members' perspectives. It is a journey that has not concluded, and it is definitely a work that is still in progress. Much of what I have just said is borne out of our initial discussions a number of years back and by our subsequent appearance before the joint committee.

I assure the committee again that there is provision in the Act for a relevant Minister to refer work to us. We publish the reports, we issue them to the local authorities and we put them on our website. We have the good practice seminar and we provide reports to the Minister and the committee. It is ultimately a matter for those bodies to do what they want with them but a lot of work goes into it and it would be a pity if we did not take advantage of the opportunity to get the right recognition and focus on that. Given that provision in the Act, I assure the members of the committee that our door is always open. I am more than happy to engage, particularly on the detailed and granular work we are doing at the four working group levels. There is a lot going on there. I am more than happy to have follow-up meetings with the committee or with individual members to outline the depth of the detail we are making strides on in the working groups.