James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked one question very clearly. Can Mr. Doyle commit to doing some analysis on the obligations around the Oireachtas meetings with chief executives? Can he analyse all 31 local authorities in this country and come back to me and this committee with a comprehensive report on how many local authorities are living up to that? I want to hear about that. That was one of the issues that was raised around 2004 at the end-of-June mandate.

This is my final point and I promise I will conclude on this. It all comes back to this. Until recently, we were paying county councillors in this country approximately €17,500 per annum to do all of the research and oversight that is required. My point is that the current set-up we have in this country is wholly unfit for purpose. It is just not working. The Department is not getting the level of oversight we need. There are not disciplinary procedures in place when failures happen. That is a huge problem in this country. We have to be honest about it and try to come up with solutions.