Pat Casey (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In respect of giving powers back to councillors in making tough decisions, that could equally be applied to national level as well. People run away from tough decisions.

As for future financing, whether VAT, an overnight tax or whatever it is, the problem is not the tax. The problem is the lack of accountability for what that delivers on the ground. When we see visible delivery of what we have voted for, we can stand over that decision, and that is the bit that is missing.

In respect of the regional assemblies, the national planning framework and the Office of the Planning Regulator, that was a complete and utter disaster. We adopted a county development plan where 16 out of 20 towns had exceeded their 2030 population targets. We dezoned land where critical infrastructure was in place to build houses. In fairness to the planning regulator, on this occasion he is only enforcing his own plan he drove through this House, but it is the national planning framework document that he is enforcing. That is where the fundamental problem was. To say the regional authority has the power to assign 50% of the population growth in Wicklow is wrong, and it is wrong for it to decide what the key towns in Wicklow are. They are local decisions and that is where they should be decided.

In respect of town team issue because I mentioned it, that an organisation called the town team is allowed to apply for funding to deliver projects the municipal district should be delivering is fundamentally wrong. It devalues the role of the local councillor. Today, we are discussing the future of the local authority, and I think that full-time position is in that discussion. I am not saying we want a full-time councillor today, but it is about where the local authority is going and it is in those parameters I would like to see that discussion held.