John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

They cannot be moved on. Will those who do not want to leave the county councils be put back into that system in some other way? That is a critical aspect of all this because such an approach would add further costs to a local government system that has already been badly costed and represents poor value for money. That is the issue. Deputy Troy asked why the current Government and previous Governments have always gone after taxpayers and householders aggressively. Governments are not keen to apply the same aggression to achieving a reduction in the costs on the other side, in this instance, the cost of local government. If the Government implements the McCarthy report, it will save approximately €520 million and will not need to collect the €160 million it is looking for under the household scheme, for example. I appreciate they are two different issues, but the principle is the same. The Government simply will not go after the inefficiencies in the system.

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