Denis Landy (Labour)

As the Minister of State has said, a specific provision in the section of the Bill dealing with local government will allow a single official to manage both of the electoral areas that are to be merged until the new system is put in place. I suggest that consultation is extremely important in this regard. In that context, I would like to bring to the attention of the Minister of State correspondence that was sent by the Minister, Deputy Hogan, to county managers in recent days. The Minister wants a questionnaire to be sent to every local authority member in the country. It seems that will be done by means of a very circuitous route. The questionnaire will be sent to the county managers, who will send it on to each councillor in his or her area.