Professor Deiric ? Broin:

I wanted to flag a couple of basic points that have been lost in some of the discussion. People talk about how audacious, brave or radical this is. We spend 8% to 9% of Government expenditure through local authorities. In many European countries it is 60%, so we have the narrowest range of competencies outside of Hungary and Moldova. They are our peers now, so we are really not in a great situation. It needs to get better.

What is being talked about here is actually quite incremental. It really is not that radical, and that is where I think the conversation needs to go. I am not qualified to talk about when a referendum should be held but the perfect is the enemy of the good. It is about having as much information as possible available, and as quickly as possible. I am taken with having the general scheme available but I think Dr. Quinn's point is very well made around the cynicism creeping in. There will always be actors and stakeholders who will push a very cynical line about change.