Mr. Art O'Leary:

In an effort to be helpful, perhaps, and far be it from me to disagree with my glorious chairman, Deputy Ó Broin made a point earlier about the general scheme and what the powers are, what this means, what the structures are and what might they look like. If we are building a system of local government to last for the next 100 years, an investment of some time is probably worth it. I understand the urgency of the question which the chairman has spoken about. I have been a civil servant for a long time. I understand that big wheels occasionally move slowly, but they tend to eventually get there to do the right thing. A period of reflection and contemplation is very important. As the chairman said, this report is nearly a year old now. Some of that reflection and contemplation should already have happened. It would be great if everything was sorted for the local elections for next year, but I suspect that will not be the case. That is not a reason to put it away for another five years, so the work must go on.