Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

It is flippancy gone made at a most serious and difficult time for our country. I will leave the matter at that but I look forward to the Deputy Leader's reply.

The issue of having a directly elected mayor of Dublin has been raised by my eminent colleague, Senator O'Toole. I wish all prospective candidates well. There is a serious national issue so will the Deputy Leader indicate if this is a pilot scheme for Dublin? We are a small country but Dublin would not be the best example for the entire country. Surely we cannot proceed on the basis of a lack of uniformity. I would like to hear the Deputy Leader's thoughts on this as he is a man with insight, given his close contact with the Department and his general knowledge in any event.

We had a most important debate yesterday concerning the proposed national asset management agency, NAMA. I do not want to go back on that but there are two serious and important questions. Timing is important with this issue and delay is our enemy. When will the agency begin operations on an interim basis and when will we have legislation for it? Is there anything definitive in this regard?