Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Bill, even though I had not planned to do so. The tone of this debate is completely at odds with the reality. It is as if we are trying to paint over the cracks in the system without acknowledging what is happening with local authorities. While the Bill may have been drafted in good faith, it does not do justice to the people who work for our local authorities. I have the pleasure to work with my local authority, as both a councillor and a Member of these Houses, for the past four years. The people who are employed by the authority in my area which, as Deputy Catherine Murphy pointed out, has the lowest level of staff per head of population in the country are absolutely superb. Meath County Council punches far above its weight, particularly in light of the number of staff available to it. Instead of bashing local authority staff which most Members present seem to believe is acceptable, I want to publicly congratulate them on the work they do.

I do not require legislation to obtain replies from my local authority. As stated, I have a relationship with the staff there which I have built up over a number of years. I recognise that it may be difficult for members of the public to obtain answers within a short period, particularly if it is difficult to obtain the relevant information, but this is not because local authority staff are sitting at their desks coming up with ways to upset the general public. Local authority employees are completely overworked as a result of the reduction in staff numbers in recent years.

The staff to whom I refer work in our communities. They are our neighbours, members of our families and friends. They work damn bloody hard and they need to be respected for this. We should not be pointing the finger or putting in place legislation which is designed to allow them to be admonished or reported to the Ombudsman if someone does not receive a reply to a letter within three days for normal requests or 15 for substantive queries. These people are working under duress and they must be congratulated for maintaining the level of services we enjoy. One of the real problems in our local authorities is that staffing has been reduced drastically in some cases in recent years and morale is on the floor in many cases. Having these conversations and making willy-nilly comments to the press about services not being delivered does not help. Public servants do a job in this country and they should be congratulated for it and supported for the fact that most of them are doing either two jobs or one and a half jobs. The management team in my local authority work 80 hour and 100 hour weeks. I am unsure how many of us would be happy to work 80 hour and 100 hour weeks while suffering the backlash of loose talk from politicians.

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