Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The turkeys have not been saved by the Dáil. The House will welcome the fact that negotiations are about to begin on another round of social partnership deals. Is it satisfactory that the Dáil had no role in setting the agenda of the last negotiations, debating the agreement, approving it or monitoring any of the progress under it? Is it appropriate that the Dáil should be excluded to such an extent from this process? Are there proposals from Government to change this going forward?

In this season of goodwill, I do not like to strike a discordant note. However, looking back on the past 12 months, it is a major disappointment that in the Tánaiste's brief, we have not seen the independent inspectorate Bill in respect of nursing, which the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach promised we would have before the end of the year. It is also disappointing that we have not seen the nursing home charges Bill which was to deal with the illegal deduction of charges. Moreover, while I welcome the recent announcement that the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is taking charge of the introduction of the implementation of the Children's Bill, it is hardly satisfactory that eight years after the introduction of that Bill to the House, we are still discussing its implementation. We have not decided to implement those provisions but instead are setting up a group to talk about implementing them. How many countless hundreds of young people have not been deflected from crime because we have not acted more promptly? It is a serious issue.

With regard to the Government decision on allowing the vote for people in prison, will the Government take on Deputy Gay Mitchell's Bill in this regard? I note from the documentation that there is now a decision by the Government to support that approach.

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