Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on local development companies. I know from talking to the Donegal local community development companies that they were very unsatisfied with the so-called consultation that took place with the Department and the Minister in advance of this alignment being announced. They were practically presented with a done deal and told by the Minister this is what would happen with no consultation at all. It smacks of arrogance from the Government to go ahead with these decisions that will affect 1,900 workers throughout the country and the delivery of local community development programmes. Not having any consultation makes a mockery of the whole system.

A local authority being responsible for local development is a good principle if it is done properly and correctly. When the local development companies were established over 20 years ago, they should have been delivered through the local authorities which would have made them more responsive to the needs of local communities rather than having duplication. The Minister’s plan is that local authorities will not deliver local community development programmes. Instead, local authorities will just be putting out to tender the delivery of community development in their administrative areas to organisations that will be delivering the programme on a profit basis. There is no doubt the Government will go ahead with this realignment. However, it must ensure that only non-profit, locally based companies can apply for the tenders. This is the only way we can preserve the ethos of the local development companies which have so far not been operating for profit while looking to the benefit of the communities they serve rather than lining the pockets of the owners of those companies.

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