Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

On the legislation, as the Deputy correctly stated, it is proposed that the Bill will be published in this session. The details will be a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

On the briefing to be made available to the Opposition leaders, I welcome the public announcement by both leaders of their acceptance of the invitation to participate in the discussions, the formalities of which will be dealt with later. Officials from the Department of Finance will provide the briefing to the Opposition Members with a view to having a meeting afterwards for further discussion and deliberation with the Taoiseach.

On the issue of departmental Estimates, as the Deputy will be aware, we now have a different scenario in which the four year plan will have to be discussed and produced in the middle of November. Although the Estimates have not been finalised, I expect they will be published in the same manner as in the past two years.

On the legacy issues raised, I am not aware when the report in question will be made available to the Minister but I will revert directly to the Deputy.

See this speech in context