Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

There is no legislation on today's Order Paper. Private hospitals are not regulated under appropriate legislation. Cancer treatment is supplied by a variety of hospitals throughout the country. Does the Government intend to review the legislation in order to extend the remit of regulation of hospitals to include private hospitals in the legislation?

What is the situation regarding the proposed review of local government in the context of local government elections of 2009 and the statements from the Minister indicating the proposed review of local government boundaries could take a long time? The Taoiseach recently commented on this matter in the House. Will he provide a more definitive timetable as to when, in the run-up to the elections, information relating to the local government boundaries will be forthcoming? There are many areas where, as a result of development, towns have grown significantly larger in recent years. These towns have made applications in respect of establishing town councils. Will these applications be considered as part of the Minister's review?

Despite tabling questions to the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, I cannot obtain information on what proposals for introducing a carbon budget on budget day will mean in practice. We do not know what the budget will contain and the Tánaiste is now stating it will take the form of a carbon report appended to the budget. Will the Taoiseach see to it that Opposition parties receive some information in respect of the proposed contents of the carbon report that will be contained in the budget in two weeks' time?

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