Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Schedule 4 relates to the point that Deputy Cowen makes about assets being transferred to the successor authority. Is that successor authority the municipal district or is it the local authority? For example, the town council on which I sat for years was quite prudent and put money aside towards its future and in terms of securing a building, and had accumulated quite a substantial sum of money. That will go to the successor authority unless it is spent in the meantime and that requires the agreement of the Minister in our current circumstances. This is precisely the kind of issue that will cause very deep resentment especially where a local authority had been prudent and its money was to be spent or to go into a big fund to be dispersed all over the place. It may well cover the losses in other areas where local authorities had not been so prudent. A fixed asset, such as a park, is different because people will have the benefit of that. For a mobile asset, such as money, it would be important to define where that goes and which is the successor authority.