Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I join in the expressions of sympathy to the families of the firefighters who lost their lives in Bray yesterday. It is an absolute tragedy. Senator de Búrca was the first to raise this on the Order of Business. There must be measured debate in this House on the issue of fire services rather than simply a knee-jerk reaction. I say this with respect to all those who have raised this issue.

When we debated the Local Government (No. 2) Bill 2003 in this House, we received commitments from the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, in regard to the services to be made available to Oireachtas Members on their departure from their local authorities. I call for a debate on local government with the new Minister, Deputy Gormley. I am pleased with his appointment to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government because I hope to see the Green Party's policy on local government reform put forward for discussion in the Dáil and Seanad.

Reform is badly needed. I will offer one example of the inefficiency of local government. I contacted my local authority in March 2003 in regard to a planning violation. Some four and a half years later, I have received no response from management and there has been no resolution. We received assurances from the former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, that such difficulties would not arise and that the service available to Oireachtas Members following resignation of their local authority seats would be the same as that provided to authority members. That is certainly not the case in this instance. We must have a debate on local government reform. The cast iron guarantees we were given have not transpired, as Members throughout the State have discovered.

I call for an increase in funding for the green home scheme to which Senator Boyle referred. If we are to encourage people to give consideration to energy conservation when building their homes, we must ensure they are offered incentives rather than penalised. There should be increased grant assistance for this purpose.