Several Fianna Fáil backbenchers strongly criticised the management of local authorities yesterday at the third meeting of TDs and senators to discuss future party policy.
At a gathering in Leinster House to discuss "quality of life" issues, backbenchers maintained that many local councils were slow to improve non-national roads and to build social and affordable housing.
According to one source, several backbenchers noted that "funding to local authorities has quadrupled since 1996 but we are not seeing value".
The question of the difficulty of building one-off housing in the countryside was raised by at least one member at the meeting, which also discussed tourism, sport, the arts and crime.
Next week will see the final in this series of meetings, organised by the party in response to discontent expressed by backbenchers who felt their voice was not being heard by the Cabinet.
While a group of backbenchers had initially wanted to set up a committee run by themselves, they agreed to the Taoiseach's proposal for these four meetings, which, he said, would allow them to have an input into policy and into the party's next general election manifesto.
Government chief whip Tom Kitt said last night that, as the person responsible for planning the agenda for September's two-day residential meeting of the parliamentary party, the meetings had been very useful. He said that national policy issues would be central to the Westport meeting and that "rapporteurs" from each of these four meetings would report to the Westport gathering.
The Minister for Tourism, Sport and the Arts, John O'Donoghue, addressed yesterday's meeting, detailing to his colleagues the successes in this area since 1997 and outlining some of his future plans. He said the development of a National Conference Centre remained a central issue for him and he referred to plans for the Abbey Theatre.