Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It is another bit of soft power. The Taoiseach mentioned in his bullet points about engaging with the formulation of Government policy through Cabinet committees. As someone who was a county councillor for more than 20 years in Wicklow, could I ask that we look at ways of improving communication between councils and Departments? That is something I feel, just from my interactions here in my first six months, about the closeness of and interaction with the county councils. Councils will deliver a lot. We talk about Government policy; a lot of Government policy gets delivered by councils because they are the guys on the ground, especially with housing and infrastructure delivery. I wonder could we have more ideas about bringing councils and Departments closer together. The Taoiseach probably knows better than me. Councils get these memos and instructions but I feel there could be better communication, more face-to-face meetings and more targeted approaches between the councils and Departments. It is a general observation.