Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. This is the first Commencement matter I have raised and I will endeavour to deal with it as effectively as I can. I ask the Minister of State to make a statement on the provisions of the Local Government Act 2001 that have not been commenced since the enactment of the legislation and to explain why each of the sections in question have not been commenced. I have a particular interest in the power to hold public inquiries under section 212, which states:

The Minister may cause such public local inquiries to be held as he or she may consider necessary or desirable.

This is followed by several paragraphs setting out the manner in which an inspector appointed by the Minister might carry out an inquiry in a local authority area. My understanding is that there was a preliminary response to this, in that there had been a constitutional referendum on the powers of the Oireachtas to carry out investigations and the people decided this was perhaps a step too far. It has previously been stated that the principle arising from that constitutional referendum was the reason the section was not commenced. Did the Minister receive specific legal advice on this issue? Is it a legally binding opinion or is it a subjective interpretation of the outcome of that referendum?

I tabled this Commencement matter arising from the experiences of a very good friend of mine, Councillor Fiona McLoughlin Healy, who serves on Kildare County Council. I have known Fiona for almost 40 years. She is a person of the utmost integrity and a very high-calibre individual who opted for public service by standing for election to the county council. She was with Fine Gael initially and subsequently has served as an Independent councillor. In her time on the county council, she has raised extremely serious matters relating to the way in which the county council operates with regard to procurement practices and all sorts of other activities carried out at the expense of the taxpayer that are neither transparent nor fair. She has raised serious questions in respect of probity and ethical practice. As a result of raising those issues as a councillor and public representative, she has experienced an incredible and vigorous campaign of reprisal against her on Kildare County Council. That is a matter of grave concern because she is a good citizen who opted for public service and at one point ran for election to Dáil Éireann. She has been left with nowhere to go. Last week, she publicly announced that she will not be seeking re-election. That flows from all of the concerns she raised but, more specifically, the very nature-----