Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)

As I said, I will certainly bring it back to the Minister, but that said, I would take into account what I have said about how there is no plan as it stands. There are employees within the council set out under section 161(1)(b). Retained firefighters are one such group, considering the pay scale, but there.is a reason that legislation is there in terms of separation of powers and there is a good reason this legislation is in place to not allow council employees to run for election, especially those in certain pay grades. I get the Senator's point about the incredible work our firefighters do. It is phenomenal. We have seen many efforts being made, especially from the point of view of the retained firefighters, to get increases in their pay scale and salary and these have been successful. However, in this regard it is going to be tricky to find a path to allowing them run for election as the Senator is looking for, but we will certainly have future conversations about it with the Minister.