James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I second the amendment.

The substantive reform of local government should have taken place before 2004. We are only 12 or 14 months away from a local election and we want to see exactly what reform is to take place. We have better local government but it has become more bureaucratic. We all know most local authorities are top heavy with administration. We have seen situations where there are several people sharing responsibility in each section of a local authority. Some of the counties they run are quite small with less than 30,000 people, like my own. There is a need to reform and change this huge structure.