Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Ó Murchú. I thank Deputy Troy for moving this Bill. We will support its progress to Committee Stage, where we can analyse it further. It takes an unfortunately necessary "big stick" approach to how politicians and the public interact with local authorities. We all know the experience of making representations for constituents and how slow some areas can be to provide a proper response. We all know of examples. My staff and I have spent weeks upon weeks following up with local authorities just to get a response. It can be very frustrating for the constituents when you spend a number of weeks explaining to them that you are still waiting on a reply from the local authority. As we all know, these can be complex and time-sensitive cases. As Deputy Troy said, people usually come to our offices when they are under real pressure. We all know the staff in local authorities are doing their best. I acknowledge the hard-working staff in my constituency, particularly those in our local area offices, who always do their very best. However, we would all agree that the resources at their disposal are very limited.

As the Bill stands, local authorities would be required to provide substantive replies within a set time period. That is balanced by the local authorities' right to refuse in certain instances, which is sensible. Section 3 may need some work on Committee Stage to make it a bit more pointed and less open to interpretation.

I welcome section 4 that brings in the right to access the Ombudsman where local authorities have either refused or failed to provide a substantive reply. It can be highly frustrating, as I have said, to wait weeks upon weeks for a reply and then to receive a copy-and-paste response that leaves you none the wiser and you are still left waiting to get a proper answer to the actual question you have asked. It is good, therefore, that there is a route to pursue a proper answer.

Perhaps on Committee Stage we could tease out section 5 a bit further. It seems very wide-ranging and I am conscious we have 41 local authorities and the PAC probably has the biggest workload of any committee in the Houses.

As I said at the beginning, it is probably an unfortunate reflection of the experiences of public and elected representatives that this Bill is even required. I imagine it will take some time for this to find its feet but it should push local authorities towards a change of attitude in their role and responsibility to those who rely on their services. There is a much wider debate to be had about local authorities and how local government operates more generally, but that is a discussion for another day. As Deputy Troy has said, this is a minor change to address a particular problem in the here and now. This legislation, on the face of it, will do exactly what it says on the tin. I look forward to discussing the Bill further on Committee Stage on another date.

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