Maria Bailey (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Most of those issues were raised already. When one is elected to the Oireachtas, one sees the level of support that is available to Members, even with the service provided by the Library. As a local politician, one does not have that support and one is on one's own. Councillors fund their own support. They come in for harsh criticism and they have to make crucial decisions. Training allowance and so on have all been diminished during the years but we might look at the possibility of training or management programmes to strengthen local government. When people have knowledge, they can excel further so I think we need to support local government and consider an allocation in future Estimates.