Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

As I understand it, this is procedure which is relatively new. I think it comes under the Local Government Act 2001. I do not think we have been around this track before. I understand that it is the first review of local government boundaries since 1998 so there is no normal way. This is not something that comes up every year but is a one-off report that looks at the populations involved. The terms of reference it was given state that the minimum number of seats must be four and the maximum seven. It will involve very significant changes in local election boundaries.

All of the political parties who are preparing and organising themselves for local elections and holding selection conventions need to know what the boundaries are. People out there who might be contemplating standing in local elections need to know the local election boundaries. What I am asking for is very simple. The Taoiseach said that the Minister has not yet received the report. This is a report that must be presented by 20 June. That report will land on the Minister's desk some time between now and 20 June. I simply want an assurance that this report will be published and made available to us, not on the same day, but within a few days, being reasonable about it, and that a situation will not arise where the Government parties are in possession of the electoral boundaries for the local elections and the rest of us must wait until next September or October.

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