Mr. Luie McEntire:

We hope we can be of assistance to the committee on its deliberations of the Public Sector Standards Bill 2015.

Our submission and presence here today, is a joint appearance by both the Association of Irish Local Government and the Local Authority Members Association, as the two national representative bodies that represent local elected members. The delegation is jointly led by me and Councillor Bobby O'Connell. I am a member of Longford County Council and Vice-President of the Association of Irish Local Government. Councillor Bobby O’Connell is the General Secretary of the Local Authority Members Association and a member of Kerry County Council. Both of the associations thank the committee Chairman and members for giving us an opportunity to discuss the Bill with them and the implications that the Bill will have for elected members at local authority level.

First, we wish to clarify with the committee that neither association held meetings with officials in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government on the Bill, as has been referenced previously by the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. The Bill was referenced at meetings, in general terms, that the AILG had with officials from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The Bill was mentioned in the context of the AILG's elected members' training programme and the possibility of providing further training in the area of ethics and governance for elected members.

However, at no stage was the Bill or its contents and possible implications discussed in detail by officials from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government with either representative body. Indeed, we would not expect it to be as the Department did not propose the Bill. Therefore, we welcome the opportunity to highlight our concerns about the Bill. We wish to confirm that we are available to meet the officials from the government reform unit in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to discuss our concerns if they so wish.

It is important to state that while both associations have some concerns with certain aspects of the draft Bill, and that while we welcome any measures to strengthen the standards that the public rightfully expect from people in public office, we reiterate that the vast majority of the 949 local councillors across the country are hardworking men and women whose only interest is to serve the communities that have elected them. We welcome a robust and transparent system for the declaration of assets and business interests for public representatives. However, we feel that some of the measures in the Bill may place additional extensive and onerous obligations and responsibilities on our members.

We would like to make some specific points about some provisions in the Bill and their possible implications for our members. At this stage I would like to apologise on behalf of the president of the AILG, Mr. Damien Geoghegan. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend today. I will hand over to my colleague, Mr. Bobby O'Connell, Chairman of the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA.