A Laois county councillor has said that public bodies like the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the Office of Public Works (OPW) should be brought to municipal district meetings to explain their approach to elected members of county councils.
Cllr Conor Bergin raised the issue at a recent meeting of the Borris-in-Ossory/Mountmellick Municipal District.
He said that agencies like the NTA and OPW as well as Transport Infrastucture Ireland (TII) should be directly addressing the councillors who are dealing with concerns in relation to their areas of responsibility on a daily basis.
“They are all public bodies and we should be able to get them here to get answers,” he said.
“Where is the accountability. They are taking public money. Local government has been stripped over the years and we have less and less power.
“We should be able to contact them and invite them here to speak to us.”
Donal Brennan, Director of Services at Laois County Council, said that as there are three municipal districts in Laois, the best place for those agencies to attend would be a Strategic Policy Committee meeting on a specific issue.
Cllr James Kelly had previously raised the issue of bus shelters in Mountrath, Borris-in-Ossory and Castletown. He was told that the council would liaise with the NTA in relation to funding for the facilities.
“I’ve had five notices of motion on this and I’ll keep putting them in until it’s done,” he said.
“This is funding for people to have a small bit of comfort while they wait for a bus.”
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