Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Dempsey raised the issue of independent legal, planning and financial advice. No one has touched on the very powerful County and City Management Association, CCMA. It gets all sorts of advice and does not have the capacity or knowledge either, but it is getting it from an agency. That was a very good idea and suggestion. We cannot have each local authority having individual sets of services. That is not practical either. It is only as a last resort. It is not always necessary to have it but it is important as a last resort. We need to look at the roles and functions of the CCMA, the most powerful body in this context that is funded by taxpayers and public money, to support and keep it in situ and keep the status quo for it but we do not have that on the other side of the house for elected members.

As to Deputy Ó Cuív's point, which Deputy Howlin also touched on, it was Seanad Éireann that put the scuppers on the merging of Galway city and county councils. They will recall the legislation had been passed in the Dáil-----