Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. He mentioned a number of local development companies which are in trouble. It is important to point out that County Clare was not among them as it is one of the more successful ones. However, I appreciate that there are companies throughout Ireland and we have to legislate for the entire State and not just one county.

On the other hand, the European Commission and the European Court of Auditors have shown that local development programmes run by local authorities in other member states have performed poorly. The Irish model of local development companies has been favoured by the European Commission. With that in mind I am very glad to hear that the Minister proposes to give the local development companies an important role in implementation and on the boards of the new committees which will be established. There is a fear that these will have just a token representation of perhaps one member on the board. What is needed is a greater range of information on the proposed role of the board and, more important, who will comprise that board. The question is whether it will effectively be in the power of the county managers. The entire thrust of Putting People First is to give powers back to elected representatives and to restore the county manager to a chief executive position rather than being effectively the power behind the throne which is the case very much at the moment with the power of elected representatives very much emasculated. I thank the Minister for the clarifications he has provided.

See this speech in context