Mr. Gerard Darcy:

I agree with everything Mr. Tesky said. In regard to the retiring councillors, I have been a councillor for 33 years. I was first elected in 1991 and have six successive local elections behind me. I come from a family that is steeped in local government. My dad was a councillor between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s. His uncle was a councillor in the early 1920s. It is in our blood. I have three children. One is a teacher here in Dublin, one works in Limerick for a financial institution and my son is a farmer. They see the time I put in. I decided to retire after 33 years because, as someone said earlier, I am getting into the autumn years and there are a few other things I want to do before I get to be an old man. I was asked at the time which of my lads was going to go for the council. My children said they were sorry, but they could not do it. It is not possible for anyone in my house to seek a nomination from the Fine Gael Party. They all have an interest in it but it is simply not possible because they have to hold down a job and their lives are extremely busy as it is without taking on what is now almost a full-time job.

In 1991, when I joined the council, the old north Tipperary chamber was then in Nenagh. My expenses for the day of a council meeting were £9.80 because I only lived five miles from the council centre at the time. None of us came into it for the money and we are still not in it for the money. If we were, we would be on a loser.