Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge what has been said regarding councillors and their remuneration. I say that in light of the Government's decision to undertake a review of remuneration. A senior counsel, Ms Sara Moorhead, was appointed on 21 June 2018 to undertake that report. Some 17 months later, there is no conclusion to the process. The objective set out when Ms Moorhead was appointed was that the report would be finalised by Christmas 2018. In the autumn of 2018, it was announced by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, that there would be an interim report. That interim report was published just prior to Christmas 2018. There has, however, been no follow through since. I was told in a response I received in the last few days that the report is reaching an advanced stage. What does that mean?

Following that advanced stage, the report will be discussed by the Department of Finance, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. After that, at some date in the future, the report will be brought before the Cabinet. It appears that this is just kicking the can down the road. It is disingenuous that this matter has not been resolved. Councillors are the practitioners of local democracy and this is report is clearly now just being kicked along until after the next general election.

All political parties need to come together and sort this out once and for all. The existing confidence and supply arrangement must address this issue. The remuneration cannot be allowed to dwindle any further. What will happen is that there will be an election and all the Deputies running for the Dáil will expect councillors to canvass for them and to do all the representational work on the ground, yet those same councillors are being treated with contempt by all of the Oireachtas. It is a disgrace because those are the people working hardest at the local level. This is something that should be addressed and I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate on this issue, with the Minister present, to discuss where we are at with this issue once and for all.

Turning to another issue, the British Prime Minister at a press briefing yesterday announced a roll back on holding to account members of the British armed forces who were involved in-----