Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a precedent for a service delivery plan under the old health board system. It worked rather well contrary to what people might have thought about the regional health boards. It was one aspect of it which definitely worked well and I know as much from many years of experience. It was the only time that councillors had a chance to scrutinise exactly where the money was going and the only chance to re-orientate the priorities if a group had a majority on the committee.

I am somewhat surprised that Deputy Murphy might have a problem with this, because it is open and transparent in respect of where money is being allocated and where it is going. The national oversight and audit commission will be able to scrutinise and determine whether it is the appropriate vehicle for implementation. These matters can be reviewed any time. Anyway, if we want to have good quality services provided, now that the people will be paying more at local level, we need to have more openness about where the money is going. That will happen through these service delivery plans. For that reason I believe this is one of the meaty suggestions in the legislation that will give real teeth to local authority members and ensure they are in charge of the budgets rather than the officials.

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