Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from Deputy Casey's comments. The genuine concerns he raised around formalising synergy, shared interests, works programmes and goals between areas that cross county boundaries make absolute sense. I could argue about the composition, and I will, but we also need to get the sequencing right. There is a lot of additional work. We have covered many of the points, including during last night's meeting, but this proposal needs a review period. If we are to do it, then a review period needs to be formally built into it. If the idea is to be rolled out to eight areas and if it works, there are more areas it could also go to. I had mentioned some areas to the Minister of State at yesterday's discussion. I have concerns around the timing but I take the Minister of State's point that the report was agreed by Government and laid before the committee.

I and my party want to be reasonable in how we approach this. I could agree that we would go to the next stage but, if I am not happy, as the spokesperson for my party, I reserve the right to table amendments on Report Stage to withdraw these sections in their entirety. I would do that because I absolutely agree with the concept. I have seen the issues in local authorities across the State and in my own local authority. We need that level of formalisation. We would have worked with the Minister of State through the process if I had known about it, but it was not on my radar and I do not believe it was on the radar of any of my colleagues that this was coming down the track. There is more in the Bill that I agree with than I disagree with.

In the context of being constructive on these sections, I agree with Deputy Casey that the membership of the urban district committees should be for elected members. I feel very strongly about this. I have no issue in consulting such a consultative committee, which is useful, and I have been involved in consultative committees in the Dáil and in local authorities with interested groups of people. They were not from elite or exclusive communities. They were from the whole community. That is what I am interested in, as are all of us. The proportionality piece needs to be dealt with along with how the members of the body are selected. We need to get under the bonnet a little bit more on this, so to speak. I am happy to engage with the Minister of State from Tuesday.

I and my party colleagues have been working through this Bill since yesterday to put forward the changes we would like to see. As I said yesterday, there are some issues with it but I will assent to letting it go to Report Stage. Following these discussions, however, if I am not happy that issues are being addressed, I will reserve the right to vote to remove these sections on Report Stage by way of amendment.