Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister provided clarity to Senator Wilson on the filling of positions on the local community development committees, LCDCs. Could he clarify the selection process for the chair of the LCDC? Clarity has been sought across the political divide.

It is only fair that time is provided for the realignment of community development within LCDCs to bed in and for us to examine progress. I worked in community development for many years. We quickly discovered that some systems that were introduced to assist with a bottom-up approach did not work. The best use of volunteers was not being achieved because of the processes that were introduced. The Minister will recall that much auditing was done to determine value for money and best practice. Nationally, we did not come out very well from the process. There is always an opportunity, none more so than at the moment when the most significant reform of local government in 100 years is taking place, to examine a system that would best serve communities through local development companies but also with a sense of democratic accountability and autonomous opportunity attached. For those reasons I look forward to the roll-out of the system and to getting clarity on the issues I raised and those that were raised by Senator Wilson to protect and enhance the role of elected persons. They are the ones who have a mandate from the community on whose doors they knocked to get votes. The mandate from the people should be supreme over everything else. The Minister has done a good job in the past two weeks in making changes that were required. He is listening. I respect and thank him for that.