Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

The reason I asked the Minister to outline his priorities is because six weeks ago a review of the programme for Government was a very important issue when his colleague, Senator Boyle, floated the notion. He must have had a reason for doing so but obviously not so good a reason now that the elections have passed. In the run-up to the elections we needed something for the Greens to talk about but since the Minister has now outlined some of the ideas, I ask him whether the White Paper on local government reform will be published - although it is eight or nine months behind time - and will it be done in the context of the forthcoming Commission on Taxation report? What is the timescale for that report? The Minister has made one suggestion.

The Minister did not do that well in the previous programme for Government because 95% of it was copied and pasted from the Fianna Fáil manifesto. I am wondering where the big idea is or whether it will be more of the same over the next while. The climate change Bill is an interesting proposal. I note that my colleagues in the Labour Party have published a similar Bill and I have views on this subject. After two years in office I would have thought the Minister would have got agreement from his partners in government about a climate change Bill.

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