John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as quick as I can. Many fairly specific questions have been asked. I took all the notes last night. It was only when Deputy Ó Broin was going through his issues that I used a highlighter to highlight them. On the time issue, it is intended, as it has been all along, that these structures will come into place when the new councils are elected. With the best will in the world, next year's local government Bill, which will deal primarily with Galway, will not come into effect until well after the local elections. I want to say in response to the queries of all Deputies that I am asking them not to vote down these amendments on the basis of my commitment that I will withdraw the whole lot of them if we cannot come up with something constructive in the two weeks before Report Stage. I agree that this is substantive. I have been buried in this issue for all of my life. I suppose I have a unique kind of appreciation of it. I do not want to be seen to do anything that disadvantages anyone. I hope we can figure out some amendments within the two-week period I have mentioned. I am willing to introduce those amendments. If they are not agreeable, I will withdraw this section.

I have not heard anyone disagreeing with the idea I am advancing. The principal objections relate to the composition. The problem with the composition is that a fear factor kicks in when a smaller local authority is told it will lose its power to do its local area plan. The fear is that the larger local authority, which could dominate these committees on a proportionality basis, will just dictate in a way that brings about a boundary change by the back door. I am not going to be dishonest to the Deputies here. There is no attempt to suggest that it is proportional. It is a very genuine attempt to deal with a completely intractable issue. We all know that no county boundaries will be changed for the foreseeable future of the Oireachtas. That is the position as far as any of us can tell. In such circumstances, how can we use the existing structures to create something new that looks at these towns and cities in their entirety? That is where I am coming from with this idea.

The members of these committees will be elected from the local authority electoral area adjacent to the town or city. In the case of Drogheda, for example, I understand the Drogheda urban local electoral area of the Drogheda municipal district adjoins the Laytown-Bettystown-Duleek local electoral area.