Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The witnesses are welcome. I have a couple of questions concerning the opening statement. It was said that significant annual savings would be achieved through efficiency measures and workforce planning in local authorities. Can Mr. Dowling expand on this? Members will be aware that there is provision for a targeted redundancy package within local authorities, so how will this work? Will county managers or the new chief executive officers be asked by the Department to recommend reductions of key personnel at certain levels, such as senior executive engineers, directors of services and other higher grades? Will existing personnel covering smaller counties be asked to extend their remit across other counties to share services involving fire officers, veterinary officers, county librarians, arts officers and heritage officers? Does Mr. Dowling think this can be achieved in the plan?

I have another question concerning my own local authority in Sligo. "Municipal authorities" is the name suggested for the sub-level of local government in the document. Will some towns or cities be called municipal boroughs mainly for historic reasons? I know it will apply in a number of boroughs. Sligo Borough Council, for example, was granted this title in 1613 by King James I. If the council was allowed to keep this name for historical and tourism reasons it would be a good step. It would not in any way dilute the Department's proposal, particularly from a cost viewpoint.

On page 54, the report refers to the establishment of a socioeconomic committee, SEC, by each city and county council, which will have responsibility for planning and oversight of all local community and development programmes. The SEC will play a key role in decision making on EU and national funding programmes and interventions, as well as certain co-ordination functions of county development boards, which will in effect be replaced by the SECs.

This will afford local authorities opportunities for greater involvement in planning oversight and management of locally focused programmes, as well as providing for greater co-ordination across the full breadth of these programmes. How does the Department see the role of the current boards following the establishment of the new socioeconomic committees, SECs? Will they have a diminished function? Will local authority members still sit on these boards or has this been worked out yet?