Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----to seek Government help because it did not materialise into anything worthwhile and actually placed restrictions on the individual as to how he would start his company and run it for the first few years. There is not enough help for indigenous industry in Ireland. If there were, it would be good for small communities. It would be good for small communities if we changed our mind about local government. We all know that local government has been problematic, but we told them they were not working very well and that there was a lot of poor practice going on and we took even more of their powers away from them. We took more and more. We took more of their revenue-raising independence. We have watered down the local authority to such a degree that we do not actually have local authorities any more; we have local administration that is dependent on central government for a handout in order to make ends meet. It would make a huge difference if we had real local government. It could be a huge benefit. Since local authorities did not perform well and were disappointing much of the time, instead of minimising them and stripping them of authority and finance, we should have fixed them.

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