Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I apologise for the absence of the Minister, Deputy Cullen, who is meeting the British Minister for Energy this afternoon to discuss a matter of interest to everyone, namely, Sellafield. He is also obliged to appear before the Select Committee on the Environment and Local Government with regard to the Estimates today.

The Local Government Bill 2003 was initiated in the Seanad last February and was passed by it on 25 March. It was then sent to the Dáil for consideration and was passed with a single amendment. This was to cater for the fact that the Bill had been overtaken by the Local Government (No. 2) Bill 2003, which dealt with bridge orders. The latter, although published after the Bill with which we are dealing, was enacted on 10 April 2003 as the Local Government Act of 2003. Dáil Éireann, therefore, amended section 8 of the Local Government Bill so that, when enacted, it will be titled the Local Government (No. 2) Act 2003. A small, consequential, technical adjustment was also required to the collective citation as set out in section 8(2).

I appreciate that this may be somewhat confusing because of the technical nature of the matter. I understand that Members have received a copy of both the original section 8 and the new version, as contained in the Bill before us, set out on a single page for their information, which I hope will clarify the position.