Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I have been in this House and listened with great respect to its Members. I have never heard such nonsense as in the last hour, in particular from Senator Bannon. He wrung his hands about the demise of local government. I have a small point of history. The first time local government was seriously culled in this country was in 1924. It was a long time ago and there has been a long history of Senator Bannon's party and its predecessors culling local government. Senator Bannon also discussed rates, and the problems incurred when the domestic rate was abolished. Senator Bannon should check the facts. The inter-party Government of 1976 made the decision to abolish domestic rates, which all political parties followed. Every now and again it is a good thing to introduce facts into the debate.

The Senator also showed a degree of confusion when he said the Government should do something about local charges. Local authorities are democratically-elected bodies. The level of their charges, particularly development contributions and rates, are struck every year by their elected representatives, as he and everybody else in this House knows. Senator Bannon also knows the results of the 2004 elections and that his own party and its coalition partners have a substantial majority in a number of local authorities. That is an unfortunate fact Senator Bannon chose to overlook when he decided to trot out the IBEC line about increases in rates.