Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's willingness to look at each of our amendments before Report Stage. On that basis, we will not push them today.

As regards the local ballot, the Minister is right to say that immediately after the local elections, in the summer, would not necessarily be the best time of year for parents. That is why we need to think this through on all sides of the House before Report Stage to find the right mechanism to do it. A local ballot is important but we need to look at the best way of doing that, which fits in with the timescale involved. It must ensure that all parents have a say in who their parents' representative is with a view to giving the representatives involved a maximum amount of legitimacy and the strongest possible voice on behalf of those they seek to represent.