Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his presence. What we seek is contained in the matter submitted for debate, which is "the need for an ongoing engagement between local development company workers and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to address issues and concerns raised by the proposed alignment of local government". That is very straightforward and all I seek from the Minister is a commitment that the coalface workers at community development level will be incorporated into the debate as equal participants to those who are currently debating the future alignment.

This is a very important sector. For example, approximately 7,500 people are engaged in the Tús programme, and the Leader and local development programme have 2,600 people. In other words, approximately 10,000 people are engaged in the sector. The people who work alongside these people - who conceive, prepare and supervise the programmes - are not party to the debate on alignment. We know the local area partnership boards have managers who are aligned to the Irish Local Development Network, ILDN, group, and they have representation, which is only correct. I seek a commitment that the socioeconomic committees, for example, will have an implementation group incorporating the voice and influence of workers who feel rather vulnerable because of a move away from the past and local development boards being subsumed by local area boards. Local authorities will subsume those bodies again.

The workers are feeling rather vulnerable because they do not know what the future holds, so will the Minister guarantee that the worker's voice will be given equal status in the implementation group?

See this speech in context