I welcome today’s bilateral meeting between the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron. This is their third annual summit to review progress since their joint statement of March 2012. As we know, they have many important matters, economic and otherwise, to discuss such as the proposed British referendum on membership of the European Union and the situation in Northern Ireland, including a number of important legacy issues, not least of which is the question of collusion. We look forward to this meeting and we wish the Taoiseach well.

We all have sympathy with the points made by Senator Gerard P. Craughwell. As regards the wider issues, we all are waiting, in a united fashion, for the outcome of the meetings between the representative associations, namely, LAMA, the Local Authorities Members Association, and AILG, the Association of Irish Local Government, with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Governmen t, Deputy Alan Kelly. It behoves us all to hold our whist while these meetings take place. Councillors know that we are backing them and will be ready when they call on us for a meeting or whatever further support will be necessary.