Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

These issues will now transfer to the county council. The Minister raised the issue and I am sure the Cathaoirleach heard him say ,that reducing the burden on small businesses should be an objective. I fully support that. However, I also support dynamic, progressive local government systems that will deliver both services, policies and development for its citizens. I know that in Wexford we resisted increasing the number on the county council for many years, but at the stroke of a pen, the Minister has increased the number from 21 to 34 people. Everybody, including officials, agrees that it will make it much ineffective. In effect the Minister is creating talking shops, in place of the more focused business driven local government systems. The town councils delivered well in each of the towns and I think the direction the Minister is taking is highly regrettable.

I think it is important, and this is the point I am making in amendment No. 99, that the elected members of the local authorities would have the opportunity to review these shared arrangements and see if in fact it will be best practice for the delivery of these services to the people they represent, or whether it should be reviewed and a new approach adopted in the current circumstances.

As I read the Bill, and please correct me if I am wrong, the Minister is stating that any such prior arrangements that had been entered into by management will continue to operate and therefore he is taking it out of the scope of the local authority members who will be elected in 2014 to decide whether that is in the interest of their local authority and communities. I query the reason for doing this, as I do not see the logic of it. I think that existing inter-county council arrangements could be planned on a clean sheet from hereon in. There is significant dismantling of the services that local government have been providing. It is only appropriate that members conduct a review and then make decisions. In my opinion that is what true local democracy is about.