Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I welcome the indication that we will see a document between now and the summer. The reform of local government is ultimately about providing a better service to the citizens. At times, public representatives, managers and others seem to be the main beneficiaries of reform. From my examination of being in local government, one of the matters is the value of SPCs and the roles they play, which seems to vary from one local authority to another. In recent years we saw the abolition of the dual mandate and I believe a vacuum has been created. Given the lack of connectivity between national government and local government on strategic issues for regions, will the Minister consider allowing Members of the Parliament or Senators to have a direct involvement in SPCs? The role of the SPCs is to address the strategic planning of a region. It would make sense for Members of Parliament to sit on SPCs to create a level of local joined-up thinking and bring it to the national level.

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