Ms Gillian Coughlan:

I thank Ms Tütt and thank the Deputy for his comprehensive question and his real insight into local government.

Yes, we are hamstrung as councillors. We coalesce and work together as collegially as we can across our chambers to try to get budgets and get work done, but the agenda is set by the executive, really. Budgets are presented to us. We do not formulate the budget. The budget is presented and there may be a little tinkering or horse-trading here and there but nothing substantive. Again, I think it is somewhat a function of the part-time nature of the councillors as well. That has been taken advantage of. People come into the meetings, they are working very hard at community level and many of them need to work as well, so time is limited.

I think the municipal district structure is working well. I am a former Bandon town councillor and I loved it. Town councillors worked very hard for very little. I represent Bandon and Kinsale. Kinsale had an urban district council and its own autonomy and its own budget. We had the former town council type, and certainly in Bandon we are benefiting from the municipal district structure. I think the municipal district structure could be strengthened. If I had a magic wand, I would include an Oireachtas Member from every municipal district. It is back to the question of legitimacy. I would suggest maybe six or eight people in the municipal district going into the county council, with one of those going to the regional assembly and one to the Dáil or the Seanad. Cork South-West is a three-seater. It just happens that the three TDs are based west of Bandon, so - this is just an example - Kinsale feels that its TDs are very far away. The political legitimacy from the ground, the subsidiarity, right up to national policymaking needs to be more linked. Ours is a small country, a small island. We could look at government in a slightly more cohesive, to use the word of the day, manner in order that the links are formed and chained together, that we do not allow the executives to exploit the cracks, that the politicians drive the agendas for their communities, their local people, and that the benefits are seen on the ground. That is why all of us are here. We want to try to improve the lives of our citizens. That is why they put us here. That is very important.

To refer to the enlargement question, I am the European Committee of the Regions chair of the working group on Kosovo so I happen to be engaged in enlargement at the moment. I was in Timioara in Romania last week and there is a big push on for enlargement. Countries such as Montenegro and North Macedonia are very frustrated that things have not moved on. There has not been a country accession since Croatia in 2013. That is a long time. Yes, there will be a need for the cohesion policy for those countries, but let us peel back to ask ourselves why the European Union exists. If we go back to the aftermath of the Second World War and peace on our continent, that is why we are here - to progress our citizens' lives such that the rising tide will raise all boats and that le chéile, is féidir, that if we work together, hopefully we will be able to make even better outcomes than we could by ourselves.