Ms Geraldine Tallon:

The whole issue of imposing financial penalties on local authorities is quite difficult as they have got reduced resources as Departments and all of us have in the current climate. If a local authority is penalised financially that reduces its capacity to perform even further for the future. This is a subject of some interest and concern in the local government division. I would be inclined to the view - I may be speaking loosely - that if there is a view that a local authority should be penalised in some way that, perhaps, it might be better to look at limitations on the discretion available in particular circumstances rather than saying that financial penalties are necessarily the way forward because financial penalties, unfortunately, compromise capacity further.