Before I call the Leader to respond, I join Senator Cassells in thanking everyone who served on the Seanad Public Consultation Committee during its discussions on the future of local democracy. He was its rapporteur, but Senators Black, Boyhan, Casey, Chambers, Currie, Martin, Joe O’Reilly and Wall were also involved. Former Senators, Regina Doherty and Niall Ó Donnghaile, both served on the committee. It was an important examination of where we were as a country in terms of local democracy. The key recommendation was the establishment of a task force chaired by the Minister for local government, who would report to the Cabinet with proposals from the task force and outline how and when they would be implemented. These would include not only the recommendations from the committee, but also the proposals from all previous reports. The one thing local democracy is not lacking in is reports on reform, but the one thing it is lacking in is implementation of recommended reforms. We hope that all political parties and groupings in the Houses will take the suggestion on board and include in their manifestos that the task force be established within three months of the appointment of the Cabinet member with responsibility for local government and that a timeline for implementation and legislation be set forth by the Government to reverse the mission creep by many agencies and the sweeping away of powers from democratically elected members.

I call the Leader to respond on the Order of Business.