Mr. Michael Murphy:

I am delighted to be here. First and foremost, I am here representing the town of Clonmel, a former borough, where local democracy dates from 1649. I really welcome the work of this committee.

I think the most recent White Paper on local government was in 2011. Regrettably, the reforms introduced in 2014 did not realise the excellent vision and ambition in that document. In the context of many of the socioeconomic or societal challenges we face, many of which are discussed in this Chamber daily, there is an urgent need for the meaningful involvement of local authorities, their empowerment and, crucially, their better resourcing.

I am representing the head of the Irish delegation to the European Committee of the Regions. Thankfully, the architect of the Maastricht treaty in 1994 established this body. It is so important that local and regional authorities have a say in the EU legislative and policy-shaping process, particularly when it is borne in mind that 70% of all EU legislation is implemented at the local level. There are 329 members of the Committee of the Regions across the 27 member states. I sit in a chamber with councillors, regional ministers, governors and former prime ministers. It is a great privilege for me to represent the nine Irish full members and the nine Irish alternate members. I assure members of this committee that the Irish delegation punches above its weight. Our work is supported by the secretariat of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly and the Irish regions office, based in Brussels. We would not punch above our weight were it not for that dedicated support.

In recent months, we have prepared a strategy for the Irish regions office and a local government support service here in Ireland. We are looking for two additional posts in Brussels and the creation of eight EU affairs officer posts here in Ireland, based in clusters. I refer to the previous NUTS 3 level. For example, County Tipperary is clustered with counties Limerick and Clare. The purpose of this is to provide an enhanced support for local authorities and a one-stop shop approach to navigating the EU policy arena and the funding arena. Currently, a number of local authorities here in Ireland have a dedicated EU affairs officer. In some cases they have strategic units - for example, Cork city, Dublin city, County Donegal and Limerick. It will come as no surprise that it is those local authorities that have dedicated EU funding officers and dedicated strategic units. They are the most successful in accessing EU funds. The timing of this strategy, with the EU Presidency in 2026 in mind, is ideal. I seek the support of this committee in the context of this strategy. I am happy to share the strategy with the committee. Again, I congratulate the committee on its work and thank it for this opportunity to present.