James Bannon (Fine Gael)

The €36 million cost of the tribunal since 1997 is tantamount to legalised corruption. The cost is unbelievable. People in every walk of life and in neighbouring EU countries are talking about the high costs of the various tribunals.

In the 1930s and 1940s in Ireland, the County Management Acts were introduced because of widespread allegations of corruption and jobbery. As a result, the process of power within local government shifted from the elected representatives to officials, with the effect that we now have probably one of the weakest local government systems in Europe. This needs to be addressed and I hope the Minister will do so, decentralising more powers to the elected members and making them more responsible. That is what we all have been crying out for. We all served terms on local authorities. I served 18 or 19 years on a local authority and I know how cash and responsibility starved were local authorities over that period. I hope the Minister will do something——