Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

On the abolition of the dual mandate and the issue of reform which the Minister raised, it is clearly his philosophical position which is behind this legislation. He sees it as necessary to break the link between the national Government and Parliament and local councils yet, when he talks about that, he refers only to revenue raising issues. That gives an interesting insight into the Minister's thinking which is that, as soon as Oireachtas Members are out of local councils, he will bring in legislation – which he expects to be passed – to force local councils to be funded by local charges. In Britain, that is called a poll tax.

All Members are in favour of reform of local authorities but we are watching those authorities being emasculated, with powers taken away almost on a weekly basis—