Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On a somewhat related matter, the issue of the Moorhead report was raised last week. To be fair, right across this House, among Senators on all sides, there is a desire to have the report published so we can have a discussion on what is in it. I read the Leader's response last week and he said it should be published, and rightly so. We need the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, to come to the House. I was talking to Councillor Joe Malone from Kilkenny, who is in the Visitors Gallery and is very welcome. The Minister of State, who is from Councillor Malone's constituency, has responsibility for local government. There is anxiety throughout the country to get this report published, for good or for bad, whatever is in it. I do not think it is going to contain what most people want, and I say this as somebody who was lucky to be on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for 12 and a half years. I identify with the issues Senator Humphreys and other Senators have raised in regard to local government. I could talk about the property tax all day but I will not as I will do that on another day.

On the Moorhead report, people need to appreciate that councillors in 2008, 2009 and 2010 took hits. They took a class of PRSI they had never paid before, a 4% super-tax that has been somewhat dealt with in terms of the class S measure, a USC charge of 5.5% and a cut of 25% in their travel and subsistence. This was all taken at the time and most of it was not really reinstated in any meaningful way. Many of us have been councillors in the past and we know councillors work extremely hard, with long hours on top of trying to have family balance, work-life balance, hold down a career and so on. A huge amount of time is put in. Let us have a look at this report. It was promised 21 months ago and there was an interim report last Christmas. Although I will not put down an amendment to the Order of Business without talking to the Leader, we need the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, or the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to come to the House to tell us what is holding it up and when it is going to be published. The Leader is nodding and I thank him for that. Let us get a date for when it will be published or a reason it cannot be published.