Mr. Michael Whelan:

I thank the Cathaoirleach. As I said, I have used the flexibility of joining meetings remotely myself, but it saddens me to hear that there are other councils where more people are joining meetings remotely than there are present in the chamber. That takes from the discussion and that every councillor will agree with that. There was a lot of talk about town councils and about perhaps not putting them back in the way they were before, and definitely not at the cost of the rural districts. As someone who comes from a village of 400 people, if these town councils were going to be put back into place, the rural aspect would have to be worked out. These areas would have to be protected as well. I thank all the committee members for the day. I hope the outcome of this endeavour does not sit on a shelf and that the committee will push things through and bring us back to where councillors used to be. If not, we will become irrelevant and things will start to happen. I mentioned South Dublin County Council, where there have been 20 co-options in five years. There has to be a problem. We must look at it and take it on.