Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to debate this important little Bill. I am happy to second the proposal of my esteemed colleague, Senator Cummins.

As Senator Cummins said, we find ourselves in an anomalous situation and we are merely trying to put this right. I think the Bill has the agreement of all. I hope the Minister of State will correct me if I am wrong in stating that every county council member, and perhaps every local authority member, is a member of the Local Authority Members Association. We would not wish to deny LAMA parity of esteem with any of the other bodies.

In our democracy we guarantee the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and association, and properly so. None of us would wish to deny that to members of local authorities, who look to this association as their own, and participate actively in it. That is also my recollection of my time as a councillor from 1985 to 1999. We are merely trying to extend equality to all of the members of the association without denying nominating rights to anyone else. The membership of the association touches 100% of individual local government representatives. Given this membership profile, I cannot see how, as democrats, we would not fully support this Bill. I am happy, therefore, to second Senator Cummins's proposal and I look forward to seeing it receive the approval of the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.