Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

The Acting Chairman, Senator Jim Walsh, has played an important part in improving conditions for local authority members through the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA. I am disappointed with the Minister of State's response. The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is in breach of the regulations it has stipulated for employers in regard to pensions. If the LAMA, the General Council of County Councils or the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, AMAI, take a case against the State on this matter, they are likely to win. The Minister should, as a matter of urgency, meet with local authority members through the general council or the AMAI with a view to putting a pension plan in place for local authority members.