Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I join Senator Fitzgerald in calling for the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, to address this House as a matter of urgency. He is fast dismantling education such that the structure we will have in place will have no bearing compared with that which was in place five years ago. Those who need it the most, the most vulnerable with special needs, will have no recourse to assistance under our education system. The Green Party has cynically talked about the Education for People with Special Educational Needs Act but the Government has been equally as cynical in its implementation of that Act in terms of how it has applied it. I would welcome a debate on this issue and I challenge the Senators opposite to bring forward such a debate.

I agree with Senator O'Toole and other speakers and second Senator Wilson's proposal that we have an all-party committee on the issue of head shops, of which there are nearly 100, and which are now a front door for the selling of drugs. The Fine Gael Party tabled a motion on the Order Paper similar to and in support of the motion on this matter before the House. With such head shops, we have the unregulated selling of drugs by any other name. People are seriously ill, on the edge of death, families have been destroyed and young lives have been shattered. How long must be wait for legislation and action to be taken on this matter? There is a crying human need for the outlawing of head shops and it should commence immediately. A debate on this issue must take place and, on foot of it, action must be taken.

I seldom agree with Senator O'Malley but I wholeheartedly agree with what she said regarding the North. Extremism in this country can never be allowed to prosper and win. There is a responsibility and an obligation on us as representatives elected on behalf of the people to govern and to be part of government. In the North today the DUP, Sinn Féin and the other political parties must live up to their responsibility. I wish the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, well in their endeavours. Yesterday was an historic day when two Heads of Government travelled in a plane that landed in Belfast. We all aspire to have peace, but to have peace and devolution of power, minds must change and there must be a meeting of minds in the interests of the common good, which is the benefit of the people in the North and South, and ahead of any partisan political benefit.