A report in last weekend's edition of The Sunday Business Post stated that the Government intends to put to the people in a plebiscite in October the question of directly elected mayors for Cork and Dublin, which I would very much welcome. Will the Taoiseach confirm the Government intends to take that approach? Will he involve the Opposition in that regard once the Government has made a decision? We need to be quick to consider the various options as set out in that news report to get the issue to the people in October and allow the people of Cork and Dublin to elect a mayor in May 2019.

Nothing has yet been brought to the Government in that regard but the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Phelan, is preparing a memo which he intends to bring to Cabinet in the next couple of weeks. We would be happy to consult the Opposition on the matter at that point.

My question regards the commitment in the programme for Government to deliver more housing. I read with interest an article, with accompanying photograph, in the Meath Chronicle last week regarding 40 houses that are to be built in Kells by 2021. The journalists of the Meath Chronicle are extremely independent. Its editorial stated that Meath is once again on the back foot as a result of the national development plan and that such announcements are old hat and regurgitated annually. The 40 houses in Kells were first announced by Deputy Kelly in 2015 and have been reannounced almost every year since but have not even got through the planning stage. Now that Project Ireland 2040 involves spending so much the money on advertising these houses, when will my constituents in Kells see these houses built and when will our housing list be shortened?

I am glad the Deputy acknowledges the independence of the editors of our local newspapers, unlike other Members who have sought to cast aspersions on them of late.

The Government wrongly tried to influence editors. No one is casting aspersions.

I cannot-----

The Taoiseach is very testy about his-----

Please allow the Taoiseach to respond.

I will ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to provide the Deputy with an up-to-date note on those houses in Kells.