David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A number of my amendments were ruled out of order. I will speak to amendments Nos. 42 and 43 which were deemed to be in order.

Amendment No. 42 seeks to include representatives of the social partners as members of local community development committees and also communities of interest. The Minister has gone some way towards answering the second issue regarding communities of interest, but I am sure he will agree that the social partners have played a very important part in the development of the State. The city and county development boards will be dissolved once the new arrangements come into being, but representatives of the social partners, including the trade union movement, business groups, farming organisations and so forth, sat on these boards. While there may have been some difficulty with the operation of the boards in overall terms, the social partners added some value. I accept that when one is trying to put together the membership of any committee, one does not want it to become cumbersome or unwieldy. One wants the committee to be able to function and work effectively. However, at the same time, one also wants the membership to be as wide-ranging as possible.

We also sought in an amendment that was ruled out of order to have the specific needs of minority groups represented. I ask the Minister to respond on that issue. It might be wise to have representatives of some specific statutory agencies on the committees, but our amendment to that effect was also ruled out of order. We asked that the issue of social inclusion be prominent in the development of the plans. Our amendments were seeking to improve the operation of the committees which would come into being in order to ensure they would be as representative and wide-ranging as possible and add value for all of the people we represent. It is important that the plans do exactly what is needed and if that is to be the case, they must have the support of as many groups and organisations as possible. If statutory agencies, social partners and certain community interest groups, particularly those representing minorities, are outside the door, that will not be good in the longer term. That is why we are seeking to improve this section by tabling a group of amendments, some of which, unfortunately, were ruled out of order.