Written answers
Wednesday, 9 February 2005
Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government
Ministerial Responsibilities
9:00 pm
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 272: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of times he has met the County and City Managers Association; the topics which were discussed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4052/05]
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 273: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of times he has met with the General Council of County Councils; the topics which were discussed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4054/05]
Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 274: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of times he has met with LAMA; the topics which were discussed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4055/05]
Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 272, 273 and 274 together.
Since coming into office I have had a number of meetings with representatives of local government organisations — the General Council of County Councils, GCCC, Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, AMAI, and the City and County Managers' Association, CCMA.
Details of those meetings are contained in the following table.
| Date | Organisation | Topics Discussed |
| 12 November 2004 | LAMA | Addressed the Annual Conference in Dundalk, Co. Louth |
| 10 December 2004 | GCCC, AMAI, LAMA | Met with Cathaoirleach/ Chair /President and members of executives at annual Christmas lunch for local authority associations. |
| 19 January 2005 | GCCC | Introductory meeting with the executive of the GCCC. Discussion covered a range of matters of concern to local government, including local authority housing programmes, local authority funding, rural housing and planning guidelines, waste management, retail planning guidelines, the quality of local authority service delivery, costs associated with translation of documents into Irish and the release of volunteer local authority personnel to work in disaster struck areas damaged by the recent tsunami. |
| 31 January 2005 | AMAI | Meeting with delegation. Topics discussed included town council representation on County/ City Development Boards (CDBs), the review of local government financing; Municipal Policy Committees (MPCs); representational payments for town councillors and town local government. |
| 6 December 2004 | CCMA | In conjunction with the Management Advisory Committee of my Department, I met with the Chairman of the CCMA, and the Chairs of the CCMA Sub-Committees, and had a broad-ranging discussion covering a number of housing, planning, waste management, local government, financing and service delivery issues. |
In addition, I have accepted invitations to address the AMAI spring seminar in February and the annual conference of the GCCC in March. I have arranged to meet with a delegation from LAMA in March prior to my addressing their 25th anniversary conference later that month. I will also be meeting again with the executive of GCCC in the near future. I consider it very important to meet with all their representative associations on a regular basis in order to maintain an up to date exchange of ideas on matters concerning local government.
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