Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

Will the Deputy Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to come into the House for a debate on the funding of local authorities? As a number of outdoor staff from local authorities will be laid off after the local elections, we should debate the funding of local authorities, particularly the cut backs in road grants, the laying off of staff and the reform of structures in general. The local authorities must be reformed. The Minister has flagged his intention to reform them but he is as long in office now as the rainbow Government was in the 1990s and nothing has happened. It is all pie in the sky. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government should be invited to the House as a matter of urgency, particularly in light of the cutbacks in local authorities and the strain they will be under over coming months to find the resources to keep a minimum number of staff employed.