Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

It is not about the amount. We are not the Greeks. The public will not pay the charge if they do not see efficiencies from the local authorities or if they telephone local authorities and get no answer.

Apart from putting a burden on the citizen, this charge will place considerable responsibility on local authority staff to ensure they do their jobs properly. Most of them do so but I hear of complaint after complaint about telephone calls not being returned or members of staff being ignorant to members of the public or dismissing complaints. This cannot continue because the public will be paying for it directly and the local authorities must respond to that. I hope they do so.