Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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160. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will provide a detailed explanatory brief and timeline to outline the process of examining the report of the Waterford boundary review committee as part of the overall report on local government matters to be submitted to the Government and the Houses of the Oireachtas in mid-2017, as previously stated; if he will expedite the process of examining the report of the Waterford boundary review committee to conclude the matter as soon as possible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7595/17]

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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161. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will disregard the recommendations contained in the report of the Waterford boundary review committee, in view of the near 20,000 persons who made submissions against the proposal; if he will discontinue, dismantle and disembowel every element of this process indefinitely with immediate effect; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7596/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 160 and 161 together.

The recommendations in the report of the independent committee which reviewed the local authority boundary at Waterford have significant implications andit would not be appropriate to make rushed decisions in that regard. I will be considering the report and its implications very carefully in the context both of ongoing work in relation to the future of local government in Ireland and also the development of Ireland 2040, the new National Planning Framework, over the coming months.