Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I share the opinions expressed by Senators O'Malley and Hanafin in regard to yesterday's European Court of Human Rights judgment. The people have spoken on this issue and it is up to the Government to reflect the majority view of the people, as indicated in a referendum.

As everyone said, it is a time of hope. In that context, will the Leader arrange a debate on the state of the economy early in the new year? The level of US investment in Ireland is greater than the total US investment in China according to Alan Gray in a wonderful analysis of our current economic state in yesterday's The Irish Times. He went on to say that Ireland also offers a highly educated labour force and the percentage of the Irish population aged 25 to 34 with third level education is almost 50%, the second highest of any EU country.

I do not wish to detract from what Senator Healy Eames said about the regrettable loss of 200 IT jobs to Romania but this came in a week when almost 1,000 new high end jobs were introduced into this economy.