Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I was somewhat surprised not to see the Bill in the Government's list of legislation to be published this session. It is still in section C of the legislative list, namely, a Bill for which the Government has not yet approved heads. Are there heads for the Bill? Does anyone know what the directly elected mayor of Dublin will do, what type of office it will be and what types of power it will have? Will the Taoiseach encourage the Minister who is not the "Minister for Snow" to tell the rest of the House what this office entails and to supply the House with the heads of the Bill if he has prepared them?

Does the Taoiseach have any indication as to when the heads of the Bill might be before the Government? Apart from the fact that we do not know what the office will entail and even if the Government's proposal is a serious one with which the Government intends to go ahead, we have reached a stage involving a degree of electoral sharp practice. Were we to have an election in June for something as important as this, we would at least need a better state of knowledge about it than we currently possess. Once and for all, will the Taoiseach clarify whether there will be an office of a directly elected lord mayor of Dublin; will the election be in June; when will we see what the office entails; and can the House see the Bill's heads, assuming they have been prepared?

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