Under A Programme for a Partnership Government, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government gave a commitment to address all relevant issues arising from the report of the Waterford local boundary review group and from other recent and forthcoming reports on local government arrangements. Will the Taoiseach confirm that there will be no change to the administrative boundary between counties Waterford and Kilkenny and put this issue to bed, once and for all? I notice the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is leaving the House-----

No, I am here.

He will be directly affected by this and he is the Minister of State with responsibility for this issue. A former Minister already ruled out a boundary extension. Will the Taoiseach confirm that there will be no administrative border extensions between Kilkenny and Waterford? It is time this was put to bed.

There are six reports on boundaries, four of them concerning county boundaries between neighbouring local authorities, the Cork city and county boundary review and the Galway city and county review, on which a report has been completed. It is the Government's intention that the six reports would be dealt with in the middle of next month, around the time the boundary review committees for the local authority areas for the local elections commence.