Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

How could we forget Senator Daly?

I will not oppose the Order of Business, but I will outline to Senator Wilson and the House that the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy John Paul Phelan, is travelling on Government business this week. This is a fundamental question for the body politic. While Senator Boyhan spoke about the importance of the Electoral Commission, I am firmly of the view, having been a member, that the role of the local authority is the central role in our system of politics. Senators Wilson and O'Donnell are right. As Senator McFadden said, it is important to place a value on the role of local representatives at local authority level. I do not just mean a monetary value, though that is important, but a real political value. What they do on a daily basis, and on a statutory basis, underpins the importance of what we will see on Friday with the national development plan and the publication, examination and scrutiny of county development plans. The work that they do is important. In this House, we fundamentally agree that what we are all trying to achieve is to have the pay and conditions for councillors that are called for in Senator Wilson's motion accepted by the Government and implemented.

I will not go over the debate around this part of the Order of Business other than to agree that the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Phelan, will come to the House next week. He is not available this week. He will find consensus and agreement within the Fine Gael Party. We have been working with him, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. I know that the Fine Gael councillors' representative group has met with Deputy Phelan, and last week met with the Minister for Finance and the Tánaiste.

As the Cathaoirleach said in his introduction to my reply, it is fundamentally wrong that someone from the Mizen Peninsula, Castletownbere or Bantry who is a dedicated member of a local authority serving on several boards, such as the education and training board, the strategic policy committee, SPC, or whatever, should be out of pocket for the expenses of travelling to do the duty he or she has been elected to do. Equally, it is wrong for people to have to serve on an interview panel without being facilitated by pay and conditions that constitute fair remuneration. As Senator Ó Domhnaill said, no other person would be put in that position. I believe that as a body politic we must stand up for ourselves.In the past we did not do so, such as when Fianna Fáil, with Brian Lenihan as Minister, cut expenses and allowances. We must, collectively and irrespective of our political differences and ideology, stand up for each other as professionals. I do not care if we are ridiculed tomorrow by the Fourth Estate because I know, from my time as a member of a local authority, that the role of politicians is both important and fundamental in the context of our democracy. I have been in contact with the office of the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Phelan, who is away this week. If Senator Wilson agrees, I would be happy to have the Minister of State come to the House at a later date.

Senator Reilly raised the issue of female genital mutilation and female circumcision. I chaired the health committee which carried out pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill in 2012. It is unacceptable. It is not a medical procedure but is mutilation and it should not be accepted in any way.