Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Senator White on the launch of her policy document today and wish her well. Women entrepreneurs are important. I have three children, two of whom are now women, and both of them are self-employed entrepreneurs. The policy document is to encourage people to become entrepreneurs. My compliments to Senator White on raising it in the Seanad.

I compliment Senator Quinn also on the Construction Contracts Bill passed here yesterday evening. This House has done a service for contractors in Ireland that is second to none. Debates on legislation are rarely covered in the media, although the Order of Business is covered, but I want to congratulate Senator Quinn on that initiative. It will serve the construction business, and small builders, well.

I am spokesperson on the environment. The Minister, Deputy Hogan, has been busy in recent months. In the context of the Dublin mayoral election he established a Dublin forum last July under the stewardship of the then Lord Mayor, Naoise Ó Muirí, which is examining the agenda for the proposal. The Minister has said that the referendum on the mayor for Dublin will be held on the same day as the local elections but when we are discussing that in the Seanad we should have input from that report, which will have the benefit of the wisdom of the four mayors and the councillors. The Minister had asked them to consider far-reaching powers, functions and budgetary capacity that could be devolved to local government. That is a major initiative on which I compliment the Minister, Deputy Hogan, because he is serious about doing that. We have seen the changes he has made, including devolution of functions. All of that should be included in the upcoming debate on local government reform. We have been concentrating on the Seanad referendum but I refer to the issue of lowering the voting age, as recommended by the Constitutional Convention, to 16 and the age at which one can vote in a presidential election from 35 to 21 on which there will be a referendum before the end of 2015. Many referenda are due to be held and when the House returns in September, with the benefit of the reports from the councils and the Constitutional Convention, we should have a full debate on the many major initiatives the Minister for local government has announced. I, too, want to thank the staff for all the help they have given us over the years.