Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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457. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the consultations that have taken place with Waterford City Council and Waterford County Council in relation to the proposed amalgamation of both councils under the Local Government Bill 2013; the dates on which the consultations took place; the nature of said consultations; and if they included consultations with local authority members. [50183/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Government decided in July 2011 that an objective review of local government arrangements in Waterford should be carried out. The Waterford Local Government Committee reported in March 2012 and the Government decided, on foot of the report's recommendation, that the City and County Councils in Waterford should be unified to replace the existing councils, with effect from the local elections in 2014. I subsequently appointed an independently chaired Reorganisation Implementation Group to oversee planning, preparatory work and initial implementation of the reorganisation process. The Implementation Plan produced by the Group was published in September 2013, setting out guidance for the completion of the reorganisation process leading to the establishment of the unified authority in mid-2014.

Both the Waterford Local Government Committee and the Reorganisation Implementation Group undertook extensive consultations, including with elected members of all of the Waterford local authorities. The dates of the consultations carried out by the Committee and the Reorganisation Implementation Group are not available to me. My Department continues to engage with the Waterford local authorities on an ongoing basis in relation to the preparations for the establishment of the unified Waterford City and County Council.