Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted the Minister is here again because I thoroughly enjoy the sessions when he is in the House. He is a politician whom I did not know heretofore, but he is a pragmatic man and I congratulate him on having the courage and conviction to push through this dual mandate aspect of the Bill.

It is easy for me to talk about this matter because I am not a county councillor. When we discussed this at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting, I felt I had no right to give an opinion. The Minister had the guts to make this change and the Taoiseach supported him. This issue has been on the agenda for years.