James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I am as surprised as my colleagues on this side of the House with regard to the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2004 which is on the Order Paper for next week even though the independent commission has not yet published its report. This is a serious situation. I ask the Leader to discuss this matter with the Taoiseach to ascertain how this has happened when the independent commission report has not yet been published.

I regard the independent candidates contesting the local elections as a group whose members are very hard-done by. It is grossly unfair that those independent candidates must traipse around looking for 15 registered voters and bring those people before the returning officer on the day they submit their nomination papers——