Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that. Everything he said, I know. I will have to look at the Official Report to see his response. I was handed a script with only four paragraphs by way of response. It is very different from what the Minister of State read. He went way beyond the script, which I appreciate. I also appreciate his knowledge on this matter.

Ultimately, the Minister of State said it makes sense for councillors, elected members, to be involved with the capital budget. Of course it does. The Minister of State is clearly saying there is no provision in legislation. This is the Legislature. The Minister of State can take it from me today that I will, very soon in the next few weeks, seek to muster up support among members of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government for what I propose. It is timely in the run-up to a local election, when politicians are going around the country canvassing and talking about powers in their communities, that we identify the absolute weakness. I will write to the Minister formally today asking him to ask his colleagues and the Minister to examine this matter again. We have identified a real problem here. In some councils, when the manager has his or her capital budget he or she then proceeds to enter into commitments. When people enter commitments, it costs money. It is very difficult to pull out of commitments on a capital budget when they have been initiated.We should avoid this. We should have clarity and no ambiguity. The time has come to embed in legislation the requirement that each council approve its capital budget. I hope I have the Minister of State's support in this as well as the support of the three Fine Gael Ministers who are doing an excellent job in the Custom House. I look forward to engaging early with the Minister of State and making this a really important issue about accountability in the run-up to the May 2019 local elections.