Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State well and thank him and his officials who gave us a briefing. I was watching some of the debate earlier and I thought how many more Members would have benefited if they had gone to the briefing. I thank the officials for their very detailed briefing last week. This is more power to local government and that is the message we need to get out. We must communicate that message. I hope there will be other areas where we can devolve powers and functions to councillors but, ultimately, councils then must take up the challenge and run with the powers we give to them. I thank the Minister of State and in particular his officials for the briefings and answering the queries as we went through the process.