Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This week my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, launched the reform proposals for local government. These are the most dramatic initiatives of their kind since the formation of local government in 1898. Some commentators have said that this is a usurpation or diminution of powers, with one commentator stating that the Minister had become the undertaker of local government. I refute that.

I have not seen the television programme to which the Deputy referred and cannot comment on the detail but I suggest that the Deputy relay the matter to her colleagues on the city council. Sinn Féin councillors would no doubt share her concerns and I suspect other people on the council would do so also. The place to start an inquiry is with the elected members of Dublin City Council, who should hold the officials of Dublin City Council to account and get information on the issue. The idea that we should rush in on the basis of a television programme and step over the elected members of Dublin City Council is a denigration when I thought Sinn Féin supported local government.

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