James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I move the following amendment to the Order of Business: "That No. 6, motion No. 12, be taken with No. 1". The motion relates to improving the safety of the rail network and increasing capacity.

Will the Leader invite the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to the House to explain how he expects local authorities to plan strategically for future years when even at this stage of the year they do not know what their budgets will be? This is a serious issue. The manner in which the Department operates on and treats local authorities in terms of funding makes a farce of better local government. Local authorities have no idea how much funding will be provided next year by central government for their budgets. Every other year local authorities were preparing their budgets at this time of the year but now they have been told to wait until January.