Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No one on this side of the House, and certainly as Leader, I never have acted other than in a co-operative, cross-party-support way about the issue the Senator raised. The Minister will attend the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, conference on Friday in Bantry, as I am sure will the Senator. I am sure he is canvassing and lobbying for his members, as are we all. The important point, as I stated from day one here, is for all of us to achieve a result to improve the lot, that is, the terms and conditions but equally the lives, of our councillors, many of whom have been obliged to forfeit lucrative careers to serve in the public interest. The other objective towards which we should work is to give more powers back to local government members because in my opinion, too much power now has been given to the executive at local authority level. I hope the Senator will join me in working in a bipartisan way in that regard.