Feargal Quinn (Independent)

The Minister of State is welcome. It was a joy to listen to her speak and also a joy to listen Senator Keane who has a great deal of experience in this area. I have met her in Rathfarnham where she is actively involved in a committee.

I have had an interesting morning. I attended the business improvement district conference that took place in the Westbury Hotel. A great deal of work is under way outside local government to attempt to improve the district. The real threat is to the high streets, the main streets, and how we manage to keep them alive and retain shops and retailers there when many planning decisions are being made throughout the country that are damaging the infrastructure of towns.

I welcome the Minister of State's reforms. They will hopefully make local government that little bit more efficient and finalise arrangements for the rationalisation of State agencies under the control of the Department. However, I am concerned there are no cost savings figures available or, if there are, I do not see them. There is much more we can do in terms of local government. We need to empower our local government structures in order that Deputies have the ability to think of the country in terms of our national interests instead of the current structures that we have. The Seanad is notable for Senators thinking that way on the much broader national level. The debates in this House are different as a result of the way we are elected to this House. However, on a much more basic level, local government needs to be run much more efficiently. We must find more efficient ways of doing it. We simply have too many structures for such a small country. Do we need 29 county councils, 75 town councils, five city councils and five borough district councils for a population of 4.5 million in the Republic? Does Dublin need four local authorities? Marc Coleman made the point on Newstalk that the inefficiency of local government in the South compared to the North is massive.