Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy O'Dowd for that. I am aware he shares my opinion that we can make local government better and more cost effective. Extraordinary progress has been made in this area by South Dublin County Council under its current county manager. I want to see that standard in place elsewhere, so that, for example, planning files can be interrogated at any time of the day or night, and hope that other local authorities will be similarly proactive. Some of the smaller local authorities have also improved significantly. We now have to find out how the group in the middle is performing.

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