Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I may not use all of it.

I support this legislation, which has been introduced by Senator Ó Domhnaill, the Acting Chairman, and Senators Boyhan and Craughwell. I do not mean it in a bad way, but it is difficult to draft a Bill that is just two sides of one A4 page and has an explanatory memorandum that barely exceeds one page. I congratulate Senator Ó Domhnaill on being able to distil his thoughts and explanation down to one page. This is not the most complicated idea, but it could transform the lives of some councillors when dealing with specific individuals with whom they have been having difficulties.

With the exception of one or two of the Senators present, all of us have been members of local authorities. I was a member for 12.5 years. Senator Murnane O'Connor was a councillor for even longer. Others spent a long time in local authorities before being lucky enough to be elected to this House. We have had dealings with incredibly effective officials along the chain in every local authority department as well as good directors of services and county managers, who are now chief executives. Senators Boyhan and Richmond were also members of my authority of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, where our experience with the bulk of staff was great. Occasionally, however, there was a different approach. For example, someone who was getting too many voice messages once disconnected from voicemail.

People not getting responses is not good enough. As Senator Paul Daly pointed out, while a response was often negative, people just wanted the answer. I dealt with a query once to which the answer was that a lovely 200 year old tree could not be cut down simply because it was blocking someone's satellite reception. Such questions are asked, but people are usually happy with the response once it is given and only get frustrated when they do not get one. For example, a resident cannot have a ramp because he or she is in a cul-de-sac of eight houses. The council's response might be that it will not spend money on putting in that ramp, but the councillor simply needs a response to give to the resident, who can then take that information and go somewhere with it. Perhaps the resident could approach the issue in a different way or accept the response.

Where I have been given bad responses, I have told officials that the responses do not stand up to scrutiny and need to be revisited.On many occasions officials have done this.

I am certainly not saying most officials are bad, quite the opposite, but this is good for councillors who are experiencing frustration with individual members of staff in various local authorities throughout the country. I read Senator Ó Domhnaill's brief on what he received back from certain councillors in certain areas. I will not go back over the debates we have had in recent months on councillors' terms and conditions as they are all on the record. This is about this Bill. The Government should embrace it. I do not know what could be done to change it. It is not overly complex in terms of regulation. It would be a great idea. People would receive acknowledgement within seven days and a response within 14 days. Even if it is a holding response in certain complex situations, all of us could live with getting something. There is the occasional official in the occasional local authority who refuses to engage or will not come back to someone or answer the phone or an email and who will give a fairly poor response to a question. They are the exceptions, but it is very helpful of Senator Ó Domhnaill, along with his colleagues, to table the Bill, and I am certainly happy to support the thrust of what he is trying to do. I commend it to the House.