Mr. John McCarthy:

We receive regular feedback from local authorities. We have a range of bilateral relationships with them across our functional areas, that is, housing and other services that they are now moving into, particularly in the community and other areas. Our sense is that the new system has bedded down reasonably well in its first 12 months of operation. It will take some further time to see it bedding down fully because there has been a lot of change happening at the same time, not just between the mergers of county and towns but also the establishment of Irish Water and what that means for local authorities. There are also new functions in the community area where the local community development committees have a new role. There has been a lot going on simultaneously but, in overall terms, our sense is that good progress has been made.