Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the response, which gave us the Department's view on the policy, but I would argue there is a political element here that will be looked at when the new Government is put in place in the next 12 months. When it is formed, that Government will have to have a vision for local government and will have to acknowledge what Limerick has done is potentially the way forward and that we need to move into a different space to make sure this will happen at a national level in all our cities. If that were to happen and if we were to change our focus in respect of local government, we would have real change in the powers regarding local democracy on the ground.

For Cork, it does not make sense for two local authorities to be fighting over boundaries, compensation and so on. It is all about trying to promote Cork and the region.We read in the newspapers that they are arguing about compensation packages. That does nothing to help me in trying to promote Cork as an entity. It is a political issue in many ways. Civil servants will give us the response but the political response is going to come when we form the new Government and decide how we are going to focus on local government itself.