I welcome the delegation from the County and City Managers Association, Mr. Joe Crockett, Kilkenny county manager, Mr. Tom Curran, Kerry county manager, Mr. Michael Walsh, Waterford city manager, Mr. Danny McLoughlin, Westmeath county manager, and Mr. Michael Phillips, director of traffic and city engineer, Dublin City Council.
I remind members of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person outside the Houses, or an official by name, or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. By virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to the committee. If witnesses are directed by the committee to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and they continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to a qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. Witnesses are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and they are asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable.
Before the presentation is made, the reason I invited the delegates to come before the committee today was to give them an opportunity to explain to the Oireachtas the very difficult job they had to do as a result of the cold spell, in terms of keeping roads open and water supplies functioning. As Chairman of the committee - and I cannot say whether I am speaking for all members - I thank the local authority staffs through the delegates present for the extraordinary work carried out by the local authorities. They were out on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, St. Stephen's Day, New Year's Day and New Year's Eve. We know the public was very upset and annoyed at the problems with water supply, the number of leaks and how long it took to rectify the situation, but rather than bringing in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which provides funding and the NRA which had responsibility for the shiploads of salt we all watched every night, we decided to invite the County and City Managers Association representatives to appear before the committee, because these are the people on the ground dealing with the issues, and delivering the emergency services to the people.
I want them to officially thank, on behalf of the committee, all their staffs who put in tremendous work. I am sure if they had more resources, they might have been able to do more. They might deal with the issue of the impact on resources for the future, because it is only January as yet, and we could still get a few bad spells. In the event, we do not want to see local authorities strapped for cash half way through the year because their budgets are all spent and perhaps not recouped from the Department. Therefore we want to give the delegates an opportunity to explain the difficulties on the ground. From my perspective, we are inviting them before the committee in a positive and complimentary manner, although other members might, perhaps, be more critical. We have heard a great deal of criticism with regard to what did not happen, but overall we acknowledge the great work done by local authority staff. I am not sure who is to make the first presentation. The delegates may come forward in any rotation, as suits them.