Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I have spoken to several personnel involved and all they have heard are these global assertions and utterances that the current situation and structures need to be reformed from a governance viewpoint. Where is the empirical evidence to sustain this? I note the review group is all made up of the CIB. That is like going to law with the devil and the court is held in hell. It is the CIB which wants to emasculate the existing structure. The Minister of State does not need to tell me about the 2,800 staff. They are not costing a tosser as they are free. This is all nonsense.

When we were in government, we made a bags of doing away with town councils. I accept there were some councils where one got elected with only 40 or 50 votes. However, we rushed to regionalise town councils which represented 4,000 people and in the process destroyed local government. I admit we did not keep our eye on that ball. This is the same. I have my eye on this ball, however, and I am not going to allow the same mistake happen. Once bitten, twice shy. I am very shy about this matter. It is a nonsense. I know those involved in the services in Longford and Westmeath and one could not get them for love or money. They are providing a service for nothing.

Section 9 of the Citizens Information Act 2007 gives the Minister a bit of power. It is great to have a little bit of power sometimes because it allows the Minister to tell bureaucrats to back off. I am a great believer in that. The Minister should just tell the mandarins and bureaucrats to settle down. This service is operating well and the structures should be left intact. The Minister should speak to the people involved directly. They will be prepared to accommodate change which is positive and for the benefit of the end users, such as those in mortgage difficulties and in the Abhaile programme. The Minister cannot travel down this road. We have travelled them enough already.

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