Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In Britain, 12 out of 13 cities rejected the concept of a directly elected mayor. Therefore, I believe it needs to be teased out a good bit more and I hope that can be done in the next few weeks for Limerick, Waterford and Galway.

Again, I thank the Taoiseach. I have been out canvassing for local election candidates, as I am sure he has been with his party's own candidates, so I know there are challenges such as crime, transport, public transport, particularly in Dublin, and the lack of peak-time provision.

I agree with the points that Senator Mulherin made about regional imbalance. As somebody who has three grandparents that came from the west of Ireland and is based in Dublin, I would like to see more balanced development in the other cities and regions than is currently the case.