Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues in wishing the various Ministers and delegations travelling all over the world for St. Patrick's Day the best of luck. I hope their trips will prove successful for the country.

On Monday I attended a public meeting organised by Monaghan Integrated Development Limited which was attended by over 250 people who were concerned about the future of independent local development companies and the Leader programme as a result of the passing of the Local Government Reform Bill, under which the Leader programme will be subsumed into the local community development committees of local authorities. The independent local development companies have been operating very successfully throughout the country and I am very familiar with the work they do in my county. A superb presentation was made by Monaghan Integrated Development Limited at the aforementioned meeting which showed the excellent work being carried out. In Cavan Breffni Integrated Development Limited does similar work. There is genuine concern that the work in which these companies are involved will be taken over by the local authorities and that, in many cases, it will be contracted out to for-profit organisations, thus depriving local communities of excellent services and programmes. We are all aware that the development committees are made up of volunteers from the community and voluntary sectors, representatives of various statutory agencies, as well as local elected representatives who have worked very well together. The system is working very well and I do not see a need to tinker with it. In that context, I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come to the House to discuss the issue before his proposals under the legislation come into effect. We must tease out all of these matters before a decision is taken. I know that the Minister is not a great man for engaging in consultation, but I plead with him to give this issue some time and tease it out fully before the sledgehammer falls.

I understand the Minister for Education and Science will be announcing details of the new schools building programme in the next few hours, if he has not done so already. I ask the Leader to determine whether the proposals for Dún Uí Neill Army barracks which were closed by the Government almost two years ago will be included in the Minister's plans.