Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Could the Minister of State explain, given that one of the regional assemblies was looking for the full reinstatement of section 25A of the Act, why the Government has not taken on board its request? As the Minister of State will know, the regional assemblies are cross-party. By their nature, regional assemblies are not known to collectively take very wild stances on anything. They have taken a position like that, so why has the Government not gone with their request for that full reinstatement? In their justification of this, they clearly make the case that the two-year monitoring report is very important to find a number of key implementation milestones and good practices.

Why, therefore, is the Government moving away from the good practice of having a two-year period to having a four-year period?