Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator also spoke about a tax on online betting, with which I fully agree. That Bill has been on the agenda for quite some time and I will inquire as to when it will come before the House. There is a need to tax online betting. There are major dangers for everybody. We regularly discuss smoking and alcohol but very few people mention gambling addiction and the dangers of online betting in particular. I will certainly try to have that Bill brought before the House as soon as possible. I will make inquiries as to when that will happen and report back to the Senators.

On the increase in rents for local authority tenants, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, came to the House on 6 February. I will ask her to come here again to deal with the issue of local authority rents. Senator Hayden and others also requested a debate on the role of local authorities in providing social housing. I will ask the Minister of State to come and address that matter, but as I said, she appeared here only a few weeks ago.

Senator Bacik and others spoke about direct provision, another matter raised on the Order of Business yesterday. While the numbers have reduced significantly, it remains a problem.

I have asked the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, to come before the House to debate direct provision and a number of other matters which come under his portfolio and which are of concern to Members. As everyone is aware, the Minister has a very busy schedule. However, I hope he will be able to find time to come before us for a debate on these issues in the near future.

Senators Bacik and Norris welcomed the outcome of the vote on gay marriage in France. They also noted the decision of the Constitutional Convention here on that matter.

Senator Bacik and others referred to the protection of maternal life Bill. I would prefer to await, and I encourage others to do so, the publication of the legislation in question before commenting on any speculation relating to this matter. Much speculation is being engaged in at present. We should all tread carefully and await the publication of the protection of maternal life Bill. The legislation will probably be forthcoming prior to the summer recess.

Senator Norris referred to the ECB silencing the State on the IBRC legislation. I agree with him that it is completely unacceptable that the ECB could give an instruction of the sort to which reference has been made. This highlights the fact that the sooner we can extricate ourselves from the bailout the better it will be because we will then be in a position to run our own affairs and get back our sovereignty in respect of financial matters.

Senator Colm Burke highlighted the fact that, in the context of the target set in the Hanly report, there is currently a shortage of 1,100 consultants in the health service. The Senator and Senators Comiskey, Mullins and others referred to the fodder crisis and complimented the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the manner in which he is addressing it. The Minister has met representatives from the banks and the co-ops. I understand he is meeting the CEO of the co-ops again this morning in order to address this problem. I hope that the expected increased growth of grass in the coming days and weeks will help alleviate the problems being experienced by the farming community.

Senator MacSharry referred to the N4 action group. There is no question that the stretch of road mentioned by the Senator is extremely dangerous. I am not going to comment on which road projects are due to proceed and which are not. Fianna Fáil would know much more about political patronage in that regard-----