Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I have been listening to the debate and following it closely. Coming from Waterford I understand Deputy Collins's point from an administrative point of view. Cities need the potential to expand. Waterford city finds itself in a very similar position whereby a large part of the city is in the jurisdiction of Kilkenny County Council. I do not want to enter into the Limerick and Clare argument, because we have enough of it between Waterford and Kilkenny in the area I represent, but we need to look beyond the parochial view and this is no criticism of Deputy McNamara because I am as passionate about my constituency as he is about his. He is perfectly within his rights to espouse the comments he made.

The Minister of State and the departmental officials need to examine formulating a mechanism or system whereby county and city managers responsible for administrative areas next to each other are required to co-ordinate their administration and policies in the best interests of the citizens on both sides of the administrative boundary. When people pull in different directions it does not work in the best interests of the particular city or region. We are also getting a sense of this during this debate and I have seen this in Waterford, which is a bit disjointed. Whether we introduce new mechanisms or systems in the existing local authority structure or enhance the role of regional authorities in this respect we must do something about it. I do not think we will get the agreement sought by Deputy Collins for the various reasons which were well debated and documented prior to the discussion on this amendment.

Where cities are divided or where the boundary splits a city there is a feeling it is to the detriment of exploiting the full potential development of the city. We need to look beyond this and ensure the local authorities working in the city do so in the best interests of the overall development of the local authority area and region and in the best interests of the citizens.

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