Dr. Bríd Quinn:

Senator Black asked a question about the consultative forum in Limerick. It is exciting to be in Limerick at the moment - apart from last Sunday - with the roll-out of the directly elected mayor. One of the mechanisms included is the consultative forum, the purpose of which, in the words of the legislation, is to advise the Minister about any matter that affects or is likely to affect Limerick or the performance or functions of the mayor. What I emphasise as important in it is bringing together Ministers at national level with the mayor at local level so that the issues are going to be discussed. I would like to see some form of mandatory consultation like that being spread throughout the country.

Another issue mentioned was the town councils, which has been well rehearsed. As a detached observer, I always highlighted the lack of universality of town councils and other urban arrangements. When they were there, they worked and contributed hugely. However, huge parts of the country had no such representation. I see the municipal districts as an opportunity for universal coverage. I am from a rural area, as might be gathered, but it might also reduce the urban-rural divide that exists as much at local level as it does when you take the country as a whole. When town councils existed there was a lot of duplication in the sense of needing to have multiple plans and budgets and so on, which had to be co-ordinated.

There was a bit of overlap and so on.

Moving on to the regions, it is a jigsaw puzzle with regard to the regional allocation of public services and so on. We need to co-ordinate our regions for public service purposes. With regard to the regional assemblies and connections with Europe, somebody in academia once said Ireland prostituted itself with regard to regions in the sense that for whatever opportunity was available for funding from Europe, we created regions that would fit in with that opportunity. There has never been a philosophy of regional governance. There has been pragmatism to avail of funding and so on. We need to get rid of that. Even with regard to the regional assemblies and the councillors that are on them, there is no accountability mechanism to the public and so on. If we are reconfiguring our regional assemblies or changing their purposes, we need to build in that sort of accountability mechanism for the public. I will leave it at that. I could go on forever.