John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

Christmas is coming too and the White Paper has not yet appeared. However, it could be a white Christmas. In the light of the significant reforms to be introduced in how public services are delivered and given that we discussed recently the reform of the VEC sector in the delivery of local services, many services are being delivered by central government that should be and are throughout the rest of the European Union delivered by local government, an issue I would like to see addressed in the White Paper. At this time of national difficulty, perhaps we should be looking at significant reform of local government. Rather than reading, as we did in the newspapers yesterday, that a further cut of 10% in local government funding is being looked for, the fact is that many local authorities are being pushed to the pin of their collar. It is shocking that the only concrete offering from the Minister in terms of local government reform is the Dublin mayoralty election which will prove to be something of a white elephant. It is proposed to spend a great deal more money with very little return for the taxpayer. The public in general are much more concerned about how their respective local authorities are being run and will be structured for the future.