Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their participation in this sometimes robust debate over the past two days. It has allowed the Government clearly to explain its position and deal with the inaccuracies in the public domain. The Government is committed to delivering effective local and community development for all rural and urban communities. As detailed by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, in his contribution to the House yesterday evening, he continues to value the contribution of local development companies throughout Ireland and looks forward to supporting their continuing role within a more joined-up approach to local development. The Minister believes the companies’ strength lies in their ability very directly to support and build the capacity of their communities - many speakers gave examples of this in their areas - and he sees this role continuing into the future.

The Minister’s local government reforms are not about playing to the gallery but creating sustainable models of local and community development where all participants, whether local government or local development, work in partnership to serve the communities. The Minister is dismayed at the level of misinformation and apparent misunderstanding that appears to prevail regarding his plans to reform both local government and the local development sector. If we do not modernise and support a local government system with a mandate and role that allows it to lead development activity, we will be prioritising structures over people and the delivery of effective services.

The new local community development committees will comprise stakeholders from local government, local development, State agencies and the community and voluntary sector. Nominees will be sought by the chief officer of the committee working alongside the council’s corporate policy group, and will be sought from the nominating bodies themselves, for example, the new public participation networks. Contrary to what was stated last night, the county manager cannot choose the members himself or herself. One of the primary reasons for reforming the delivery of local development support is to address corporate governance and value for money concerns at a local level. The new systems will ensure the maximum proportion of the funding available to local communities goes to provide support for projects in those communities and is not directed towards administration and management costs.

The local community and development programme, LCDP, successor programme, the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, is one of the Department’s key priorities and is required to be subject to a public procurement process. This will be competitive and open to all local development companies, other not-for-profit community groups and commercial firms. Each local authority area will represent a separate lot. In particular, the process will ensure that there is an initial pre-qualification process or stage one. The objective of this is to identify all potential entities interested and eligible to deliver the new programme irrespective of the location of where tendering companies are headquartered.

Again, contrary to what was stated in the House yesterday evening, the SICAP development process included a consultation process in April 2014 on the SICAP framework and included stakeholder meetings and an online survey. The local development strategy selection process for Leader will be an open process. The decision-making component of Leader implementation will be constituted so that neither public authorities nor any single interest group can represent more than 49% of the voting rights. In addition, funding which is designated for local and community development initiatives will be ring-fenced and will not be used for any other purpose. I will ask the Minister to respond directly to Deputy Moynihan's questions to which he needs very clear answers.

The Minister is working with representatives of the island communities to ensure their unique needs are recognised. I reject the notion that local authorities cannot engage with communities. Elected members are the essence of representative democracy and are perfectly prepared to work in partnership with representatives of participative democracy, which we are enabling. The Minister also wishes to convey his overall determination to ensure the support for local and community development will be effective, efficient and, most importantly, centred on the needs of local communities.

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