Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

To finish the last conversation, Deputy Adams is right. It is not a uniform culture. Health has always been a very difficult area to get accurate answers on. When Deputies put in a query, they get an acknowledgement from the HSE parliamentary affairs division that acknowledges it in a standard way, and the reply comes back on occasion to give the Deputy the very information he or she gave to the HSE in the question in the first place. We need a better system. Frankly, the Department of Social Protection is very good in this regard. If a Deputy contacts the Department of Social Protection, he or she will be telephoned by somebody to explain the answer to the query. It is a cultural thing that we need to do better.

With regard to the political reform question before us, while the Seanad has been mentioned, I want to mention local government. I will acknowledge it was a mistake that the Government of which the Taoiseach and I were members decided to abolish town councils. That is a view I hold very strongly now and I want to build a political consensus to restore them.

2 o’clock

I think Fianna Fáil is in the same space.

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