Professor Michelle Norris:

I share Deputy Casey's concerns about the diminution of functions of councillors. I mentioned at the start that we had agreed a joint report. All three of us signed up to the recommendations, but as the Deputy can imagine, it is fair to characterise the debate between the three of us on the various recommendations made as lively. I share the concerns about the diminution of functions. I agree that in ideal circumstances the accommodation to be provided for groups such as Travellers should be agreed to collectively within communities through the forum provided by the elected local authority. That is one of the reasons I personally was not keen on the idea of having a central body for delivery because I felt it could be counterproductive. Also, there are local issues of which local authorities know because they are active on the ground and with which a central body would spend years trying to catch up. That said, there is evidence that the initiation, in particular, of Part 8 developments presents a problem. it is also true that the emergency powers mentioned by the Deputy are underused. I gave two examples, namely, Limerick City and County Council and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, both of which have used them successfully. Colleagues in the law department at NUIG law produced an interesting report on the use of emergency powers which was unsuccessful in the sense that they had been successfully challenged in the courts. We can make the report available to the Chairman. From memory, it identified about six occasions on which the emergency powers had been used in other local authorities. They have been used rarely, despite the critical nature of the issue involved.

It is also true that often issues such as the location of sites are not mentioned in county development plans and that plans are not updated often enough. There are general problems in the planning system that create particular problems in the provision of Traveller accommodation.

Deputy Casey referred to the point I had made about the spend on Traveller accommodation in each local authority area.