Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State. I wish to outline for her the reason Galway County Council's municipal district of Connemara should be designated as a separate stand-alone lot under the social inclusion programme, SICAP, and to suggest social inclusion funding should be awarded accordingly. The decision taken by the Department, overseen by Galway County Council, has caused uproar in Galway. On 12 March I attended a meeting of 650 people at Maam Cross in Connemara. The decision made at the meeting was to make Galway, including Connemara, it one lot for the receipt of funding under the SICAP. Previously it had been divided into two lots. East Galway had come under Galway Rural Development, GRD, and west Galway under Forum Connemara.

Galway is the second largest county in the country and east and west Galway are radically different, as I know being a public representative for the county. West Galway, west of Lough Corrib, includes Connemara, while, for the most part, east Galway is a different constituency. I live in east Galway, in the Oranmore electoral division. I am very happy with the services provided by Galway Rural Development which has won this funding, but that does not mean Connemara should not be a stand-alone lot. It is a vast area which contains more than one third of the population of the county. Its terrain and everything else are different.

I support Forum Connemara and wish to explain why Connemara should be designated as a stand-alone lot. The proper way to deal with this issue is to divide Galway into two lots, one encompassing the area west of Lough Corrib, Connemara, and the other the east, the GRD area.. Unfortunately, this did not happen and for that reason, I call on the Minister to make it happen. I spoke about the meeting I had attended, attended by 650 people, and their disillusionment with the decision which had been made.

I have grave concerns about how the local community development committee, LCDC, put the new arrangement in place, through the acting county CEO. It seems to be undemocratic and divisive. There are serious concerns about the way in which the vote on the designation of the SICAP took place, when only five of the 19 people were eligible to vote. Everyone else had a conflict of interest or was absent. This has serious implications for the committee as regards future decisions, not least on the distribution of these funds.

On the night of the meeting, with others, I called for a public inquiry into this decision. I understand a judicial review is under way, although I cannot confirm any more this. If Forum Connemara is dismantled in this fashion, will it not also affect the committee's membership and eligibility?

Let me outline some of the benefits to be gained from reviewing the decision. The provision for one lot only in terms of SICAP funding for Galway means social exclusion, not social inclusion, the opposite of what we want to happen. The general view at the meeting was that Forum Connemara was of vital importance to the community in Connemara. There is hardly a person in Connemara who has not had some contact with its services. People told their stories about the value of Forum Connemara to every demographic grouping in Connemara.Young people, sports people and older people spoke. For example, the only working acupuncturist in Connemara started her practice in 2010. She provides a health service to 420 people who are rurally isolated in the area. These are people whom the mainstream health service had been unable to help and for whom travelling to Galway, a distance of possibly 50 or 60 miles, for this service was difficult and expensive. Had it not been for the services of FORUM in Letterfrack, she says she would not be in the position she is in today. She says she received guidance and support in starting a new business from FORUM when Enterprise Ireland in Galway would not even reply to her e-mails or telephone calls. She now pays tax whereas before she drew down jobseeker's allowance and she buys locally and circulates her earnings locally. She says the new arrangement would suggest she would have to travel to Athenry under the GRD-----

Marie Moloney (Labour)
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The Senator has gone way over her time.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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-----and this would not give her the same service or understand her unique problems. To be fair to GRD in Athenry, it is not claiming it has the capacity.

Will the Minister revisit this decision? As I understand it, it is now under judicial review. It was an appalling decision.

Marie Moloney (Labour)
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I have to be fair to the other Senators who are waiting to raise matters.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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For the second largest county in Ireland, the ideal decision is that Galway would be divided into two lots and that Connemara would be a stand-alone, separate lot. I thank the Minister of State and the indulgence of the House in respect of the time allocated to me.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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The proposals outlined in Putting People First: Action Programme for Effective Local Government seek to position local government as the primary vehicle of governance and public service at local level leading economic, social and community development, delivering efficient and good value services, and representing citizens and local communities effectively and accountably. This is not only Government policy, it is the policy of local county councillors as well. As part of the programme of reform of local government, local community development committees, LCDCs, have been established in all local authority areas throughout the country. This is not just in Galway.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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That is understood.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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These committees, comprising public-private socio-economic interests, will have responsibility for local and community development programmes on an area basis including the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, to which the Senator refers. They will develop, co-ordinate and implement a more coherent and integrated approach to local and community development than existed heretofore with the aim of reducing duplication and overlap and optimising the use of available resources for the benefit of citizens and communities.

There was a tendering process. In accordance with the public spending code, legal advice, good practice internationally and in order to ensure the optimum delivery of services to clients, SICAP was subject to a public procurement process, which is in its final stages. In stage 1, joint applications were encouraged and organisations of varying sizes, for example, smaller organisations working in consortia with larger organisations, were invited to submit joint applications. The closing date for stage 2, invitation to tender, was 19 December 2014. Tenderers have now been informed of the outcome of their tender and local and community development committees are in the process of finalising contracts with the successful tenderers.

LCDCs have managed and implemented stage 2, invitation to tender, of the SICAP tendering process. SICAP was tendered for on the basis of lots. In most areas, this was one lot per local authority area. This reflects Government policy and the alignment process. In some areas, a decision was taken by the LCDC to divide the lot into smaller units. That was a decision of the LCDC in each case. The LCDC and not the Minister made this decision.

The LCDC is independent of the local authority in the performance of its functions. This independence is provided for explicitly in sections 49A(2) and 128B(8) of the Local Government Act 2001. Any decisions made by an LCDC when carrying out its functions is solely a matter for that LCDC. That said, my Department advised in a letter to all LCDCs in July 2014 that in order to reduce the administrative burden for each LCDC, it would be prudent to have one lot only for each LCDC. I am satisfied that the decision of Galway LCDC to tender on the basis of one lot was taken with probity.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for her reply and the House for its indulgence in respect of the time. I hear what the Minister of State is saying about national policy. That is not at issue here. I accept that the national devolves to local, etc., but the issue here is the way the committee made its decision. It is not putting people first at local level. If it was, this decision would not have been taken, given the vastness of the county and the differences in people's needs in west Galway and east Galway. The general view at the meeting, including that of people who are members of the LCDC committee, is that they did not know on what it was they were voting. That is a serious issue. Does the Minister of State accept how serious it is? Only five out of nineteen committee members could cast a vote. How could that be a democratic decision? The view in the room and the view of everyone I am meeting is that the committee process which made the decision was flawed in the first instance. In summing up those circumstances, how can we revisit the LCDC decision so that people will be informed on the next occasion?

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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It is not the intention of the Minister to micromanage the LCDCs. I again draw the Senator's attention to the fact that in some areas the decision was taken by the LCDC to divide the lot into smaller units. The LCDC is independent and the decision remained with the LCDC.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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It messed up here.

Marie Moloney (Labour)
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Will the Senator please let the Minister of State answer?

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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The Senator will have to take up that issue with the LCDC. It is not my intention to micromanage them. As I have already mentioned, their independence is provided for explicitly in the Local Government Act 2001. Councillors throughout the country wanted this situation. They wanted more power and they wanted devolved power. They wanted to be independent in making decisions about their issues.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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They were not adequately informed.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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We cannot decide that we are going to make them independent and then attempt to micromanage them.

Marie Moloney (Labour)
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In fairness to the other Senators, we will have to allow time for their matters.

Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and will relay her message.

Denis Landy (Labour)
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A few more of us wish to speak before lunch.