Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What I wish to convey to the Senator is that there are probably two routes to getting things done. One is to let things continue. As the Senator knows, there have been massive changes at local authority level. There are fewer staff, as he pointed out. They did not lose their jobs. Nobody in the public service lost their job. They would have taken one of the different packages offered.

It is important to point out that with a complete sea change in the culture and the way of doing business, we must seek to do things differently. That is the reason the Minister and the Government are taking this issue very seriously, and right now the Deputies and Senators in the constituency are looking at potential solutions. If the Senator has not been invited to that meeting, I will convey that message. No doubt there will be an opportunity for the Senator to raise that in public.

It is important to make the point that there is a problem here and we can be proactive in dealing with it. The proactive way of doing it is to meet with the Minister and the officials from Sligo County Council-----