James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to discuss an issue of urgency for many areas which the Government, during the past four years of inaction, has failed to address.

Government plans for decentralisation were first introduced in the run up to the local elections in 1999 and since then there have been statements and a great deal of waffle on this issue. Following the Budget Statement in December 1998, in which the Minister for Finance announced that he would embark on a new and radical programme of decentralisation to transfer the maximum number of jobs to the regions, we heard promises on the issue in the run-up to local and European elections. The matter raised its head even in the presidential election.

In the run-up to the last general election, a programme of decentralisation formed part of the agreed programme for Government and was to be delivered by the end of 2002. I understand from Senator Higgins that there were promises that the programme would even be delivered a year earlier in 2001. We are now informed that the Government is committed to introducing a new programme of decentralisation in the run-up to next year's local and European elections. Will the issue hold good to provide the basis of a promise in the run-up to the next general election? It seems the election will occur sooner than we imagined given the current differences between the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil.