Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

Deputy Howlin was helpful at the time and the arrangement continued when Deputy Noel Dempsey became Minister for the Environment and Local Government. If I had informed the electorate that I had become useless because I could not make representations, I would not have been re-elected so I had to suppress my public denouncement of the council at the time.

I met the county manager at the Easter parade in Strokestown in 1999 and asked him if he would lift the boycott given that I was standing for election to the council that June. He told me he would not do so until I was elected. I was duly elected and I resumed a meeting with the same housing officer on behalf of a different constituent and asked him, since he was still there and I had returned, could the meeting continue, which it did.

On foot of my personal experience, I believe it is imperative that this provision be included in the Bill. One can have regulations, but the local authority must respond to Oireachtas Members and ensure they are met by the executive and officials, that their concerns on behalf of constituents are heard and that the right of access to documentation is assured. The Minister has said that agendas and minutes would be circulated and that is welcome but there are circumstances when a Member should be able to seek to be heard at a meeting of their local authority whether they have been members or are seeking to become members.