Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank AILG and LAMA for their interaction with us on these issues. I also thank my colleagues, Senators Boyhan and Keogan, for leading out and bringing Fianna Fáil to the table to understand the needs of county councillors. It is rather sick that people are claiming their party or another party did what was required, because all of us are responding to local authority members. In fairness, the Minister has responded. I ask the Minister to accept amendment No. 80, which actually underpins the wording by requiring that the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons "shall" be elected from members of the local authority.

A very senior member of the Government, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has recently been saying in the media that he will meet every council in the country and reassure it and whatever else he is going to do. However, the truth of the matter, about which we have to be honest, is that we have stripped local authorities of power year after year since I came into this place. I have been here for nine years, coming up on ten. The Minister for Justice now has an opportunity to give back power to local authority members. Our amendment, No. 80, is one way of doing that.

Nobody here can say they twisted the Minister's arm. At the end of the day, Deputy McEntee is a Minister. She is a very efficient one and I believe she examined the situation herself and came up with her own view on it. Therefore, I am not going to congratulate Fianna Fáil or anybody else. My colleagues, Victor Boyhan and Sharon Keogan, have worked very well with our group to introduce our amendments. I fully support amendment No. 80.