Seanad debates
Wednesday, 26 February 2003
Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage.
I will have to be convinced about the strength of the guidelines the Minister will issue to the local authority on giving information to Senators and Deputies. How strong and enforceable will they be? Will a county manager get his knuckles rapped if I do not get co-operation from him or her? Can I contact the Department of the Environment and Local Government to say the guidelines are not working? They need to be strengthened to ensure we get a level of service that will enable us to represent our constituency in order that people cannot knock us afterwards for not doing so. They should be sufficiently strong that the Department will be able to insist that something has to be done rather than may be done or done at the behest of the county manager or at the discretion of officials. That message must percolate through the county councils if Members are to leave local authorities.
No comments