A chara, - The Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Noel Dempsey, proposes to bar Oireachtas members from serving on local authorities from 2004. This is something that everyone with a real interest in local government and Dail reform has called for over many years.
Yet it is in danger of not happening because of the selfish, narrow-minded attitudes and ambitions of four Independent TDs, who between them command less than half of 1 per cent of the national vote.
In what other country would the national parliament not sit on a Monday so that some of its members could attend local authority meetings?
It is time for the Government to govern and to support Noel Dempsey's reforms. Enough concessions have been made already to the Independents. If they want to bring a Government down on the basis of protecting their own desire to continue to sit on their own county councils, then so be it. Let the electorate see what little regard they have for the national interest. - Is mise,
Malcolm Byrne, Fianna Fail member, Gorey Town Commissioners, Gorey, Co Wexford.