David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If we are to get to the root of this whole issue, we need to find out what these submissions are saying, who has put them in and what their concerns are. We need to acknowledge that they have some concerns otherwise they would not have gone to the trouble of making a submission.

If we know what the concerns are and can address those concerns, we may go some way down the road to dealing with this. Perhaps we can ask for those submissions to made available to the committee in order that we can examine them to see if there is a common thread running through them. That would be important. Everything else has been said.

This is extremely difficult politically and I know councillors all over the country come under terrible pressure from constituents. The issue does not just concern councillors but goes beyond that when there is a proposal to put in place accommodation for Travellers or whatever. The issue is bigger than just councillors who are representing what people say to them. It is a societal one. Do the witnesses have any proposals as to how we might deal with the inherent bias of society, which seems to me to be the issue?