Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I will be happy if the Minister wishes to share my time and if Deputy English were to arrive, I would be happy to facilitate him.

It is important to consider what we will be doing over the next 50 days. The public will expect us to divide our time between the various issues that must be dealt with by 11 June. It will be a pity if those issues impede the campaign for the local elections. I have very strong views on what they should be about. I was a member of the local authority for several years from 1991. Local elections should be about how people envisage the next five years of the local authority. They should consider the candidates and how they react to the various issues of concern to them in the management of local authorities. There is a danger, as proved by comments from the Opposition benches yesterday which I am sure will continue today, that attempts will be made to ambush the various campaigns and deal with issues that have nothing to do with the local elections. To some extent that will also be true of the European elections. Now we are having this debate. I will not taunt anyone about TV3, since I have already made that point. However, the referendum on citizenship is important. It is important that it be dealt with as calmly and as coolly as possible.

I have often said that I bring to this House the experience I gained in my constituency. For those Members who do not know, I live in Tallaght and represent Dublin South-West. I spend a great deal of time in my constituency and I am sometimes much happier walking the streets of Tallaght, Firhouse, Templeogue and Greenhills than in Leinster House. That is not to say I am unhappy here.

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