Ms Andrea Dalton:

I was wondering why the Cathaoirleach looked past me when he was looking for someone youthful in the audience. Senator Casey might have misunderstood me. The population is 50:50 men to women but our representation is only 90:10. We are a long way off equal representation.

Senator Boyhan asked could we do with independent advice and finances. What decisions do we make or what powers do we have that need such independent advice? Give us the powers first and the advice afterwards. Councillor Darcy mentioned, as I did in my opening remarks, that it is not possible to work full time and be a county councillor. The Chambers comprise farmers, part-time workers and retired people. I do not know how many full-time people are there. There may be a teacher or a principal or someone who has great flexibility at work. We are cutting out a whole section of people in society who are not being represented at local government. Going forward, they are not going to be represented at local government unless some changes are made. We need to move towards decentralisation. We need to increase decision-making capacity at local level and work more towards a local government system that is more in line with those of our European counterparts.