Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

In fairness, if money is being provided to local authorities and they are not doing their job, it is not the Minister of State's fault. I had the same experience when I was Minister of State and, as a result, I did something which was probably unorthodox, that is, I addressed meetings of councillors. I went to the elected members over the heads of the officials and it was effective. I told the members the amount of money they had available to them and the number of houses they could provide each year and we achieved our targets much more readily than we would have done had we dealt directly with officials. My council is one of the worst in the country for spending the money available to it. I ask the Minister of State to go directly to the elected representatives to get them on the job in addition to their officials.

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