Mr. John McCarthy:

In the best tradition, that would be a policy matter for the Government to decide. Obviously, the provisions that exist in the Local Government Reform Act were absolutely fundamentally predicated on the process that had been under way. If there were to be one, the only plebiscite that could take place in tandem with the local elections is one that would have got the support of the four councils. As the committee is aware, that ultimately did not prove to be successful. We have not had a chance at this point to think about what the next step will be because our focus currently and for the period ahead will be to get the elections out of the way, the new councils established and the programme of reform embedded in the new councils. It would be open to Government to consider whether it wants to go an alternative route in the future.