Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I am trying but Deputy Buttimer is distracting all of us. The Independents have received some nice comments in the newspaper for hard work and honesty in the Chamber. We are not being given money for breaking guidelines on adviser salaries. If the true cost of government was calculated, it would be €130,000 or €150,000 per day with all the spin doctors waiting for the Minister. They give him information that he knows is incorrect. He knows in his own heart what is right and wrong.

A Deputy mentioned fixmystreet.ie. Is there any chance of getting a website that could match mine? Perhaps it could be fixmyseptictank.ie or bigphilministerhogan.ie? All the people in rural Ireland with septic tanks want good systems and do not want to pollute the water. They do not want wells that contaminate water.

We voted yesterday on a Bill, having been given false information. There will be a guillotine on Committee Stage next week, which has never happened before. We do not know the full contents of the Bill and the Minister will have total discretion to issue directives. There must be standards in here and everywhere else. It is wrong.

We need more Bills like the one brought forward by Deputy Collins this morning, and there should also be more transparency. Some 99% of public officials are top class. We must have the public's respect and the public service must have confidence in the work it does. The Minister indicated in his reply that local authority members had avenues for complaints.

There is another issue concerning local government reform. The Minister is in Tipperary trying to beat the county and Kilkenny together. I know it happened to our county teams last year in Croke Park and will happen again this year but the Minister wants to combine the local authorities. He set up a sham information group with the county manager from the north Tipperary authority as chairman. Where is the fairness in that? He has brought in two retired officials, as if there are not enough unemployed people in the country. Those retired officials should be out playing golf now. County managers in Waterford and Tipperary, as well as many other places, retired with significant gratuities and pensions and are working again in advising about amalgamations. Retired people should be allowed to stay in retirement. Why does the Minister not do the decent thing and put the part of Kilkenny hanging into Waterford city into that county? Why did he provide €1 million to put an office in Waterford city to service County Kilkenny?

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