I endorse everything Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said about what happened in Jadotville. We discussed the issue yesterday on the Order of Business and I reiterate my support for his comments.

I wish to comment on the remarks made by Senator Michael McDowell who has brought to the attention of the House some very serious allegations about how waste management is conducted within Dublin City Council. I echo his calls for a debate on how the council is run, but I would like to extend it to a wider debate on local government and the funding of same. I would very much welcome having such a debate in the very near future. The two councils with which I am most familiar are in Cavan and Monaghan and they do an excellent job with limited resources. It is worth focusing on local authorities, the work they are doing in very difficult circumstances and the lack of funding.

I wish to follow on from Senator Paul Gavan's comments on his native county of Limerick. He castigated both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for having the audacity to bring forward a budget. I remind him that if a local authority does not bring forward a budget, the Minister can appoint an administrator to do so.

Direct rule.

We have an example in Sinn Féin policy of how it deals with budgets when the party stood back, with the Democratic Unionist Party, with which it has been in government in the North of Ireland for more than ten years. It has stood back and will allow the British Government in the next couple of days to bring forward a budget because it failed to bring one forward as its members were elected to do. They were elected in the Six Counties to bring forward a budget on behalf of the people who elected them.

Would Fianna Fáil go into government with the DUP?

I will not listen to Senator Paul Gavan or any of his colleagues in Sinn Féin in condemning my colleagues on Limerick City Council or those in the Fine Gael Party who take their responsibilities seriously. They will bring forward a budget for better or worse because that is what they are there to do. They are doing so mindful of the fact that if they do not, the Minister will appoint an administrator to bring forward a budget-----

We do not prop up dodgy governments in the way Fianna Fáil does.

----- that will not be voted on by the people who were elected to bring it forward. That is a gentle reminder for Sinn Féin. Perhaps the party might look forward to bringing forward a budget with their colleagues in the Democratic Unionist Party as they have been democratically elected to do in the Six Counties.