Two weeks ago, I asked about the establishment of the north inner city task force. In the Taoiseach's absence, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, was standing in for him and I asked for details on where the task force stands, its membership, who would lead it and so on. I remain of the belief that in order for this task force to work it needs to have the full support of everybody in the House. I was advised by the Minister that the Taoiseach would communicate with me directly. That did not happen. I contacted the Taoiseach's office again last week and I was advised that I would receive an update by the end of last week. Again, I have received no further contact. I wish to ask the Taoiseach when we will get a full briefing on the membership. I know he has been involved again with community leaders in recent days and that is very good. I believe, and I said so two weeks ago, that this could be a model that we would all buy into, sign up to and fund, whatever Government is in office for the next ten years or so. We could replicate it in other areas of the country. Will the Taoiseach bring the other parties on board in this process and ensure that we have inputs into the composition of the task force? When can we hear from him?

There is no point in trying to do it from one source only. The Deputy is aware that I met with community leaders in the inner city down at St. Laurence O'Toole's national school. There were contributions there from 30 or 40 people who are leaders in their own areas. Last night, I met with a range of people, some public representatives and some not. I believe it is important to take into account the representatives of all parties. There was a comment made yesterday evening about how the terms of reference were being drafted by a wider group in the inner city. I wait to see what those terms of reference are. I do not know all of the personnel involved in that particular area, though Members commented that it seemed to be a wider group than normal. I indicated that I did not want the task force to try to cover the entire area and that it should be more tightly managed.

I will communicate with Deputy Howlin directly and I am sorry that he was not contacted after he raised this issue last week. I hope we will set up a task force that can be a model and a template for any other area in the country by the end of July. I have to go back to talk to some of those other groups. People set out their short, medium and longer-term views. Everybody made this point: the media, with respect to them, would appear in some cases to have branded the entire area as being gangland. The people resent that. There is so much good happening in the inner city area. They ask that people reflect very carefully on what they say and what they write about the people who live across that entire area. That point was made very forcibly by both public representatives and leaders of communities. We will communicate with the Deputy and with everybody else in this regard.