Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday evening, we had a meeting with the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, which represents 900 local authority members around the country. The members pleaded with us and sought our support to enhance and strengthen the role of local government and elected members and they had suggestions with regard to the new household and water charges. I support those charges and believe we should have had water charges a long time ago, which is something I raised with my party. The LAMA members want the money from water and household charges to be available to the local authorities and for them to have a say in how it is spent. The meeting was chaired by Councillor Hugh McElvaney and my friend Councillor Noel Bourke. We had a superb presentation from Councillor Enda McGloin. I suggest -----