James Bannon (Fine Gael)

This is something that comes up at our local authority members' association meetings. It is important to have a time limit from the date the annual report is adopted to when it is made available. On some councils copies will be made available 18 months after a report has been adopted. This is unacceptable because the report is outdated by which time a second annual report should be available. I would welcome a time limit being imposed. It is the local authority's function to deal with this and managers should be advised to do so. The elected representatives are not the ones who make the decision. We, too, would like to see reports distributed as quickly as possible after adoption. While council members should insist on this, there should also be some provision in the local government reform document in regard to a time limit for publication and distribution.