Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"affirms its confidence in the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and commends the actions taken by the Minister to:

— improve, and promote confidence in, the electoral process;

— support sustainable development including the protection of the high quality of our natural and built environment;

— accelerate the provision of social and economic infrastructure and protective services (including record levels of housing output);

— implement policies to advance balanced regional development and social inclusion;

— promote and support effective local government;

and, in particular, welcomes and endorses:

— in relation to the electoral process:

— improvement of the electoral system by the introduction, on a national basis, of more accurate and more secure electoral procedures;

— the establishment of the independent Commission on Electronic Voting to report on the secrecy and accuracy of the proposed voting system;

in relation to housing:

— the 9th successive year of record housing supply involving the addition of 68,819 new houses in Ireland;

— establishment of a strong social and affordable housing programme involving investment of some €1.8 billion in 2004;

in relation to waste management:

— the major progress achieved in the modernisation of waste management, including major increases in recycling of wastes and significant advances in the development of our waste infrastructure and services;

in relation to the national spatial strategy:

— the comprehensive range of measures which have been put in place at national, regional and local levels to support the continuing implementation of the National Spatial Strategy 2002-2020, in achieving its objectives related to more balanced regional development;

in relation to greenhouse gas emissions:

— the active implementation of the Government's national climate change strategy, including the recent approval by Government of a national allocations plan for emissions trading;

in relation to the protection of national heritage:

— the reorganisation of heritage functions at central government level to ensure optimum alignment and integration with his environmental protection responsibilities; and

in relation to the enhancement of, and the quality of access to, local democracy:

— the continuing reforms of the local government system, including the greater focusing of the role of the local representative and the introduction of service indicators to ensure the delivery of value to local communities."

I thank the Green Party for tabling the motion before the House.

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