Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Councillors Dalton, Finn, Teskey, Darcy, Conway and Flynn Kennedy for their contributions. There is a certain amount of recurrence in the themes from our engagement with the councillors, which is understandable. Clearly, they are the same messages and the same concerns, and it is important that we have taken them on board.

Many people made written submissions. When I was looking at them this morning, one that jumped out was from one of our councillors in County Kerry, who stated: “It is truly an honour to serve as a public representative but if one did not already have a passion for it, it would be a hard sell.” That is true. The recurring theme is that people really love local politics. Nobody is in this if they do not like it. They have a passion. They are activist by their very nature and we find they are involved in all sorts of things. They are the same people who come into local government and they are the people we need to retain. That is an important point.

I particularly noted Councillor Conway's point about the winter or autumn of life. I would like to think I am still in the spring of my life, in fact, the big spring of my life, but I take on board what he is saying.