Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Gabhaim buíochas leis na finnéithe. Bhí mé ag éisteacht leo sular tháinig mé anseo. Any time we deal with those on local authorities, the term "democratic deficit" and the issue of the weakening of structures are raised. I do not want to repeat exactly what I said here last week but anyone who has been a councillor in recent years will be aware of those elements. Those who have been councillors for longer periods of time realise that some powers that the councils used to have no longer exist.

In the best-case scenario, there is utter cohesion among the regional assemblies and the RSES and the ERDF work alongside each other. That would ensure a decent piece of planning was done. The other issue arising here is that the wider citizenry will not be aware of this. Even many of those in the local authorities will not be aware of what a regional assembly is. I would not like to question too many of them. What sort of resources do the assemblies need? What would it look like? The assemblies will have had engagement on a North-South basis over many years. How has that worked? Have there been any issues, particularly post Brexit? We will start with that.