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

I am saying it is one of the options. I am not trying to open it up to too much in toing and froing. If I had been making the mergers when they happened a number of years ago, I believe there would have been a certain logic to having what I am talking about, particularly because of the historical factor.

Deputy Grealish raised with me before the position of mayor of Galway city. I believe we can accommodate it, notwithstanding the fact that there is going to be a plebiscite to have a directly elected head of the local authority. There is, however, a civic function for the city mayor. When the Bill is put in place, I hope we will be in a position to fully incorporate it.

On Deputy Connolly's comments, I do not think I put myself right the other evening. Although I have lived in a city for six or seven years, I come from a part of Kilkenny with a more sparse population than the wildest part of west Galway. There are 20,000 acres of State forestry at the back of my home. It is a really rural place. Despite the fact that Kilkenny is in the east, people believe it is lovely and has a huge population. There are parts of every county with a sparse population.

The Deputy is correct that rural areas do not need cities to survive or develop, but that is not the point I was trying to make yesterday. The point I was trying to make was that when the local government structure was established under the Local Government Act 1898, the interdependence of Ballinasloe and the area to Clifden was not what it is today. There were some people from Clifden who might never have been in Ballinasloe. That was the Ireland of 120 years ago. It is a fact, notwithstanding that the towns might have been in the one county. Now the world of business and politics has changed. I am very familiar with Ballinasloe. Part of the influence is the change in people’s behaviour in terms of retail and employment. As jobs have moved and people’s purchasing has moved out of the town of Ballinasloe, a trend is evident that is seen all over the country, but that does not mean that we cannot have new strategies or development plans for the rejuvenation of towns such as Ballinasloe. It has happened in other parts. The deadest town in my county in my lifetime has been Castlecomer. The coal mines closed in the 1960s. The late Jim Gibbons delivered mills for textile manufacturing, but they closed about 20 years ago. There was nothing in the place. Through a combination of the local authority, private enterprise and a few local leaders, the town of Castlecomer has been completely transformed. The biggest visitor centre that is not an historical monument in the south east is Castlecomer Discovery Park on the edge of the town. The physical appearance of the town has been improved greatly with grants from what would have been Deputy Ó Cuív’s Department in the past, the Department of Rural and Community Affairs, at which the Minister is Deputy Ring. We cannot freeze the towns in aspic in the belief that what worked in the past will work in the future. This is about trying to understand-----