This short Bill ends dual membership of local authorities and Parliament, which will commence with the next local elections in 2004. The Government also said it would discontinue the arrangements currently in place to introduce direct elections of city and county cathaoirligh at the same time. I favoured the ending of the dual mandate and as a member of Galway County Council for 17 years I know of one practical reason for that, which the Minister also alluded. We spent a lot of time trying to arrange meetings because of the number of Oireachtas Members on our local authority and there were constant rows about the dates and times of meetings as a result. Obviously it is even more difficult now since the strategic policy committees require local authorities to meet more frequently. I was a member of the authority from 1975 and it always amazed me that Ministers could remain on the authority until the following local election. That caused even more difficulty in arranging meetings.