The national Famine commemoration will be held in Newry this Saturday, 26 September. It is the first time the commemoration will be held in the North and I hope many Senators will attend this important event, if they have the time to do so. It commemorates a bleak time in our history when the potato crop failed. I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, that €1 million will be spent on marketing the potato, which is an important part of our culture and heritage and a nutritious food, with all the vitamins one would want. I remember having champ on a Friday and I was able to go around like a Duracell bunny all day.

It is also called "colcannon".

I would like the Minister to come to the House to outline how the potato will be marketed. To misquote an old saying, "A spud a day keeps the doctor away". Some 36% of the potato crop is grown in the counties of Louth and Meath and the marketing fund is great news for these growers. The spud is great food and the Cooley spud is the best in the country. The great potato growers of Cooley - the Raffertys, the McCanns, the Malones, the Hanlons and probably the Brennans - could produce enough potatoes for the whole country if marketing funding was provided.

The Senator should bring some to Strasbourg next week.

For Senator Jim D'Arcy's illumination, Carne potatoes from south Wexford are the best in the country. Former councillor Leo Carthy was a great proponent of them.

I have heard about them.

On the same issue, on a recent trip with the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade to an Irish Aid programme in Malawi we were passing through a market in a rural area that was packed with people and all sorts of produce when some of the market traders came up to the windows of the minibus offering "Irish potatoes, Irish spuds" for sale. Apparently, Irish potatoes were introduced by Irish missionaries in the 19th century. I, therefore, concur with what Senator Jim D'Arcy had to say about potatoes.

I support the call made by Senator Paul Bradford for a debate on local government and concur with what he said. The trend to moving away from town councils to county councils which happened under the previous Minister is a mistake. We could get more value and more of an impact from local government if it was more closely associated with the people. In 2001 when the then Minister introduced the Bill, one of the options considered was having regional councils modelled on municipal or district areas feeding into a geographic region. For example, we could have a south-east regional council that would include subordinate municipal or district councils. We need a debate on this issue, but it must go beyond it and deal with the lack of empowerment of councillors. A review of the County Management Act is long overdue. The lodging of significant powers with an executive is never suitable to ensure proper democracy. We have the weakest local government system in Europe. Our system of government is highly centralised and we need greater devolution from the centre.

If possible, will the Minister for Finance attend the House next week for a pre-budget debate? I asked for such a debate previously. We need to debate issues such as inheritance tax, capital acquisition tax and USC. A meaningful debate would be helpful to the Minister in the final stages of refining his budgetary arrangements to be announced on 13 October. It would be a useful exercise for us and for him. I, therefore, ask the Leader to inform us whether such a debate can be arranged.