James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. I did not think that he would be returning because the Bill was the subject of much previous discussion and examination in the House. As the Minister of State indicated, there has been much confusion with regard to it because there was no great demand, from the general public, from public representatives from all sides of this House or from members of local authorities, etc., for the abolition of the dual mandate.

One of the principal areas of concern among elected public representatives is the lack of real powers being vested in them and also the failure to deal with the important issue of time off to allow them to deal with council matters and attend meetings of local authorities. One of the major issues of concern is the devolvement of powers to local authorities, but that is not addressed in the Bill. There are several other anomalies that should have, but were not, addressed in the Bill which would have led to the real reform of local government.

I am disappointed with the Bill and I am delighted to get a second opportunity to highlight the fact that there is no substance to it in terms of real reform of local government. I hope the Minister of State will be able to tell us when we will see the real reform of local government. The electorate and public representatives were promised that there would be real reform before the next local elections, which are due to take place in May 2004.

A facility should be put in place to allow Members of the Oireachtas to link up with activities in their local authorities. That is something we were promised in the corridors of power, but there has been no hint of regulations being introduced to give us some powers in terms of gaining access to information, county development plans, annual reports, the minutes of local authority meetings, etc., all of which are very important. I call on the Minister of State to establish a members' service unit in each local authority so that Oireachtas Members and councillors will automatically receive information from any committee or sub-committee or reports directly affecting their counties or constituencies.

There is a great deal of controversy about the Bill and we opposed it on Second and Committee Stages. Under our Constitution, the President can refer Bills to the Supreme Court. I would like to ask that—