Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I support the call for the creation of a select committee on Brexit because I think that is an important issue. My colleague spoke about the education issues which we need to look at. From the perspective of agriculture, we need some idea about how Brexit, especially in its later stages, could have a major impact on the agriculture industry.

I spoke yesterday about local government and the need for reform. I was amazed by the response. I got many calls specifically regarding what is happening with our recycling and bring centres and the lack of joined-up thinking in this regard. I referred yesterday to the lack of town councils having a major effect on how our communities are working, as we do not have local input from town councils on local issues. I heard reports this morning that a civic amenity site in Bandon had closed because of a lack of staffing. A bring site also relocated out of Bandon because of dumping and another similar site relocated out of Dunmanway for the same reason.

We need a more local focus on what is happening on the ground. We have moved big government into local government issues, so we do not have that local focus. We must go back, therefore, to one of the models that worked, and that was town councils. Regarding bring sites, our attitude seems to be that we will state there is an issue with dumping and then close the sites in response. That is totally inappropriate.

We now have a staycations policy, with many people coming to west Cork and yet we are closing our bring sites. That is not good news for Ireland or local government, and that is not how we should be doing things. We need to find solutions, rather than just taking the easy option by closing bring sites and walking away because of the minority having a major effect on the majority. This debate, therefore, regarding local government and reform of local government is an important one. It is amazing how much society has changed in the past six months. People now want to have a real input into what happens in their local community and they want local power brought back to local communities.