Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The principles that should guide local government are important. I believe strongly in the principle of subsidiarity and what the Minister is doing here is not in the best interests of subsidiarity in terms of local government. There is no reform in terms of the transfer of functions referred to in this Bill and an opportunity should have been taken to include greater devolution of function.

Wherever a public service is provided to a defined catchment area there should be a representative body elected by the people to act as the governing body for that expenditure. The citizens, through their elected representatives, should control and fund the services locally that are provided for them, and the people, through an adequately funded and functioning local government system, should be sovereign. The Minister is seeking in this Bill to take away a significant portion of that funding.

Many quangos established some years ago to draw down local government funding through the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund are no longer required. Partnership and other groups that were established to draw down that funding are not accountable to the local government system. All of the funding drawn down by a community, an area based partnership, a Leader programme or any such programme should be accounted for in the local government system and I would ask the Minister to look at those functions in the context of whatever review of local government he will undertake in the future. When he is giving away so much money, he is obviously not in any hurry with such a review. Certainly, he should consider that all of the opportunities of groups and organisations to draw down funding in a geographical catchment area should be accounted for, through the local government system and the elected representatives, to the people. That is the principle he should adopt.

The Minister may recall the devolution commission set up in 1996 that considered various functions that could be transferred to the local government system. Nothing has happened since then. This is typical of the usual lip service we hear about introducing more devolution to local government but where the Minister of the day does not walk the walk in terms of that policy. I refer to the administration of various tourism and educational facilities, proper planning and development for health and educational services and industrial development. All of these areas should be devolved more at a local level.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will remember the county development boards were set up for the purpose of co-ordinating funding from various State agencies and Departments. However well the theory sounded, it was never put into practice in the local government system. We are long enough around to know FÁS will not transfer part of its budget to a local authority for the purpose of implementing a community employment programme. We also know the rural assistance budget of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív, will not be transferred for the purpose of allowing a local authority to implement a programme that will assist rural communities to develop community activities. Likewise, while the school building programme is co-ordinated at national level by the Department of Education and Science, there will not be any input by local authorities in regard to site provision. The town of Callan, County Kilkenny, is seeking a health centre but the HSE will not transfer any of its functions to the local authority to ensure it has the appropriate site location to provide this essential medical facility for the community. If we are serious about proper and accountable local government, these are the types of measures that should be examined in terms of devolving to local authorities some of the remits that are currently the responsibility of a variety of Departments.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is seeking to transfer an amount of money from his Department to another Department without a "yea" or "nay". This is a capitulation by the Green Party to its Fianna Fáil colleagues in terms of local government funding. It is a disgrace to give that money to a Minister like Deputy Dempsey, who has demonstrated so much incompetence in his time in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. He compounded this by his efforts in the Department of Transport where he could not even get a road safety strategy right. It is politically irresponsible of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, to even contemplate giving anything to his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Dempsey, notwithstanding the personal friendship he may have developed with him.

The transfer of funds might appear to be a necessary technical matter to comply with a discussion that took place some months ago in a smoke-filled room in which the programme for Government was concocted.

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