Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. While my party supports the Bill and is supportive of a rationalisation in the local government sector, the Minister of State would probably admit the Bill is limited enough in its scope. We are speaking about the Limerick regeneration agencies being merged in tandem with the merger of the local authorities in Limerick.

The Local Government Management Services Board and the Local Government Computer Services Board already operate together. Unfortunately the Affordable Homes Partnership has served its time and I am not sure whether it did a very good job. Certainly the affordable homes schemes put in place during the boom were not effective and have left people in considerable hardship. Irish Water Safety does fantastic work.

The existence of the Fire Services Council shows in some ways the rationale for having more centralised services in local government in Ireland. Many services could be done nationally and not on an individual county basis. The issue with regard to the Fire Services Council dates back to 2009 when the term of office of the board expired. Nobody has been appointed to it since and its functions have been taken over by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management established by the previous Government in 2009. Much has already happened and the Bill is merely putting this in place. It is a pity it does not go substantially further.

I have not had any dealings with the Library Council. I presume it has done a good job over the period of its existence in the Minister of State has said it has. However, I will speak about a local issue. The Laytown town library in east County Meath, which has an expanding population, was closed by Meath County Council in late 2005 or 2006. Ever since, Meath County Council has been waiting for funding from the Department, and I believe consent from the Library Council, to open a new library in the area, which is the second largest urban conurbation in the county. Nothing has happened in the meantime. I do not blame the Department, which has a role to play, as have the Library Council and Meath County Council. Between the three bodies something has got stuck and there is no proper library provision in east County Meath in the Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington area. It is a shame and a disgrace that has been allowed to happen as a result of the dispersal of responsibility with no one directly responsible. When I raised it with Meath County Council I was told it had to wait for the Library Council or for funding from the Department. If I raised it with the Department I am certain I would be told of something somebody else would have to do. I am not trying to blame the Department in this. I had understood that some funding had been applied but nothing has happened. With this plethora of bodies no one is in charge and things do not happen.

We must go further down the road of merging bodies and getting the best practice. Councils need to work together and share best practice in order to be more efficient and get better value for the taxpayer. If every household is now expected to pay €100, people will expect the best possible services from their local authority. People will not accept a lack of services in a particular area when they are paying the same household charge - or property tax as it will be next year - as everybody else. People will need to get value for money and fairness, and they have not got that under the existing system where we have had too many bodies.

While the Bill is welcome it merely tidies up things that happened under the previous and current governments. The Minister needs to go much further in local government reform. I understand there is a master plan for that and it is a pity that these types of tidying up arrangements were not done as part of that because they would only be an add-on to whatever the Minister is planning in this area.