Ms Mary Freehill:

I appreciate the opportunity for regional and local government to interact with this committee. Many questions, particularly from Deputies Haughey and Durkan, were about our experiences in respect of comparing of local and regional government in Ireland with the rest of Europe. When I first became involved in the Committee of the Regions in the 1990s, it was an eye-opener to realise that Ireland, below the level of the Oireachtas, has the lowest level of participation in the democratic world. The reason is that regional and local government structures are extremely weak.

To give an example, we spend about 7.5% of gross national product, GNP, at local government level. In Scandinavia, the figure is 33%. That demonstrates the difference. As members of the Committee of the Regions, we are participating in opinions on areas on which local government in Ireland does not even have a competency, for example, education, policing, health, social welfare, water and major funding for local government infrastructural projects. These areas are all under the administration of local and regional governments in the rest of Europe. Regional assemblies in Ireland only have the power to comment and do not have power to make decisions. To some extent, therefore, the power lies in the hands of Members of Oireachtas. It would a pity and remiss of us to not make that point today.

The current discord in Europe was raised by a number of speakers and it is an issue that concerns all of us greatly. Subsidiarity is, however, bottom up and top down. The best way to keep and maintain peace is to involve citizens and make sure they know what is going on. Citizens probably do not know all that much about what is going on in Europe because information does not permeate down to them. There are many initiatives that could be taken to strengthen local government in Ireland. It would make for a much better society if citizens and local government had an opportunity to be involved. Perhaps the Seanad could play a big role in this regard in the sense that it is always open to considering opportunities. I am well aware that Leinster House is a busy place and Members have a heavy workload and little time. However, I am perfectly sure that the Seanad could be given the power of initiative in many areas, such as waste management, noise, estate management and so forth. In every other country, it is the local authorities that have competencies in these areas. Ireland is way behind with that aspect of democracy. It would be a pity not to use today's visit to highlight that issue.