Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

The Minister reduced our income by £1 million in the following year. Not one councillor needed to make any suggestion as to where else the amount could be found. The manager brought forward proposals showing exactly where the money could be saved when, in the previous year, £100,000 of a saving would have collapsed the whole local authority. As such, I am coming to this debate with some experience of what happens in the administration of public services. I would like to think we will find some way to ensure the charges are equitable. I do not know how or against what one would benchmark these but there should be a system to safeguard the consumer from charges being excessive simply because costs are not controlled properly.