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

I am surprised the Deputy did not mention the major changes we made in the Local Government Act, which will put a considerable focus on locally elected members and ensure they will have to stand up and be counted and take responsibility for all the budgets they adopt. When local authorities receive block grants from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport it is a matter for them to see how much money they have at local level to match that and prioritise the important programmes. The Department of Social Protection operates many schemes which could provide a much needed human resource element to this debate. Cork County Council has a considerable number of opportunities and measures available that, perhaps, it is not taking, particularly in the human resource area through programmes such as Gateway and community employment schemes. We could do much more regarding the environment, local roads and dealing with the ongoing drainage issues if we had a little more joined-up thinking by all local authorities on these matters.

"Devolution" is the word I am very anxious to ensure we follow. After the local elections on 23 May it will be up to the councillors elected to Cork County Council to represent the needs of their constituents and ensure they prioritise roads. I will establish a national oversight audit commission to ensure best practice is implemented and to drill down, in specific terms, into the waste of money about which the Deputy spoke in general terms, and ensure it is not the order of the day. I remind the Deputy that there has been a reduction of 25% in the number of people employed by all local authorities and they are expected to do more with less. Such are the difficulties in which we have found ourselves over the last couple of years regarding making ends meet. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport will have allocated €517 million on roads through local authorities between the NRA and his Department. It is up to everybody at local level to ensure, operationally, that they get good value for money.

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