Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

It exists in practice and strong county management teams certainly make recourse to it. On whether there should be a central point for dealing with ethical issues pertaining to local authorities, my understanding is that officials have been designated with this responsibility, although the code has only recently been introduced in a number of local authorities. I will find out whether it is a general practice because I concur with the Deputy that there should be a senior official in the local authority who can be consulted in a value free manner.

On the Kenny report, the Deputy will be aware of the differing opinions on the issue of constitutionality but I suggest that we will not discuss these today.

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