Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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As long as I have been around, the word "community" has been used to paper over all sorts of stuff.

It can be a great word and a great concept but it is a much abused one. It is one of those fluffy words. I do not mean to be disrespectful in any way to Ms Hurley, but I am trying to point out to her that there is a huge issue. On the basis of Votes from the Dáil Chamber, public funds are going from Departments to local authorities. It is done in good faith. What I am saying to Ms Hurley is that it will vary from county to county how this is done. What I hear from local authority members and from my experience with it, the legal council has been completely sidelined in an awful lot of cases. This is a matter that must be arrested and dealt with. If there was greater accountability through the chamber and decision-making by the councillors, we might not have had the situation we had in Mayo, for example. I am not making any specific allegations against anyone here, but if we look at the RTÉ "Prime Time" programmes that were broadcast in recent years about corruption at local authority level that they found, we can see where the corruption arises. There is a big issue in that regard. I am surprised that there is not some discussion around this and that nobody has thought of it or looked at it.