Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 153: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will establish a centralised debt management service for local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27727/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Earlier this year, I established the independent Local Government Efficiency Implementation Group to drive forward relevant recommendations of the Local Government Efficiency Review Report (July 2010) in areas including shared services, procurement, value for money and audit. The Group has been asked to focus on key recommendations that will remove costs and yield earliest financial gains for the benefit of the sector. The Group has been considering the recommendations contained in the Report on treasury management and has met with the County and City Managers' Association in this regard. It has also met with the Housing Finance Agency on financial pooling arrangements for the local government sector and will be further considering its recommendations on the issues surrounding such arrangements shortly. The Group will report to me at regular intervals on progress being made in implementing relevant recommendations and its first report is due shortly.

In addition, my Department has been working with local authorities to advance the efficiency agenda. The first progress report on the Local Government Sectoral Action Plan to the Implementation Body on the Public Services Agreement identified savings of €223 million for the reporting period to the end of March 2011. Actions have been taken to develop corporate websites which provide full ranges of E-payment options and in providing multi services through telephone and in-house queries allowing for easier access to services by members of the public.