Ms Dee Ryan:

Absolutely, and some officials worked alongside us the whole way through. There was excellent interaction between departmental officials and the group. We did not want to be going into territory that just did not have any possibility of being delivered. We did not want to waste everybody's time on that. There was a lot of consideration given to making recommendations that were ambitious but deliverable. Certainly the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, appreciated that ambition and he has a vision for delivering local government reform. We met him in Limerick last week and he reassured us it is still his intention to try to bring forward as many of the other recommendations. He told us that 38 in total have been brought wholly into the Bill. A further ten are partially reflected in the Bill. However, I believe we had 67 in total, so there is a number that have not been addressed. I acknowledge what we are talking about is change and change is difficult, but Limerick has put its hand up and said we are up for it. We would appreciate the support of the committee and of the officials in the various Departments that need to co-operate in making that happen for us.

I look forward to the people of County Waterford joining us in the future. The mayor in Limerick would love to have a mayor in Waterford to have as a colleague and a buddy, and to reflect on all the commonalities and issues that face our city regions in trying to accommodate the population growth projections under Project Ireland 2040. We want to get this right, not just for ourselves but for everyone.