Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There are other similar items, namely, an employment agency regulation Bill and an industrial relations amendment Bill, neither of which have yet been published. The Tánaiste should indicate when this legislation will be brought before the House and when will it be published. If the Minister of State who has direct responsibility for these matters would like to assist the Tánaiste in her reply, I would have no objection to that either.

Another issue I wish to raise pertains to the promise by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, to place a cap or limit on expenditure in local elections. He announced this measure some time ago and I suggested to the Taoiseach that the opportunity should be taken to use the Electoral (Amendment) Bill to bring this forward. In fairness to the Taoiseach, he replied that he thought this was a good idea and indicated that the requisite amendments might be brought forward on Committee Stage of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill. However, Committee Stage has come and gone and the amendments were not made. While the Report Stage debate is due for consideration today, no Report Stage amendments have been tabled by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to introduce a cap on spending limits.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is not often seen in this House. I am beginning to wonder what he is for. He could not stop the motorway from going through Tara or the incinerator in his own constituency and apparently, he now is unable to get through Cabinet a simple measure he announced months ago to put a cap on expenditure on local elections.

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