Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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547. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans to introduce a statutory requirement for local authorities to provide timely and substantive responses to representations made by local elected representatives and councillors to their respective local authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53140/17]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Under the Local Government Act 2001, as amended, each local authority has an elected council. The elected council is the policy-making arm of the local authority, who act by what are termed 'reserved functions'. These comprise mainly decisions on important matters of policy and finance.

The day-to-day management of each local authority is vested in a full time Chief Executive to whom 'executive functions' are assigned.

The division between reserved and executive functions is such that the Chief Executive operates within a framework of policy laid down by the elected members. As such it is a matter for the elected members to hold the Chief Executive to account with regard to issues such as timely and substantive responses to representations made by the elected members to the Chief Executive and other local authority staff.

The Local Government Act 2001 (Section 237A) Regulations 2003 set out statutory provisions for local authorities and their dealings with members of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Regulations provide that each local authority must deal with requests for access to information by Oireachtas members "as expeditiously as may be and in accordance with a proper level of customer service". In this regard, local authorities are required to put in place arrangements to ensure that systems, procedures and time frames equivalent to those used by them in relation to correspondence from local authority elected members also apply in respect of parliamentary representatives.

Local authorities are independent statutory bodies. It is a matter for individual local authorities to decide the specific measures to be put in place to satisfy their statutory obligations under the Regulations.