Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All we had outlined was what the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, has done. What we did not get is what the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will do, other than that he will look at the matter. We had a similar response yesterday on votes for the Irish overseas. The Minister is looking at a lot of things but he does not seem to be getting around to making a decision on anything. AILG and LAMA have made these proposals. The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, has acted under the Social Welfare Bill, as is his prerogative and right, but the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has failed to act and apparently has not spoken to and has not sought anything from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, which is the process in the Government.

What we are hearing again is the Minister might do something soon, but he has not actually come to any conclusion and has not even spoken to the Minister of Public Expenditure and Reform to ask for anything on behalf of local authority members. We will lose local authority members throughout the country as they will not seek re-election because the workload has increased. In some cases, their areas are now as big as what used to be three seat Dáil constituencies. Their responsibilities have also increased because there are no longer town councillors to share the workload in some areas.

What we clearly see here is the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, has done something, which is welcome, on the PRSI issue, but we will be back here next year asking the Minister, Deputy Coveney, whether he has met the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and the councillors' groups, AILG and LAMA, and whether he has decided to do anything other than continue to look at the issue. I heard he might do something in June 2017. This simply is not good enough. It is not acceptable.