Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Three issues that were raised first in the House and perhaps in the Lower House were run as major news items by the media a week or six months later. Senator Higgins raised the question of the refusal of permission to Amnesty International to conduct an inquiry in our prisons. This was reported on in today's newspapers as having been raised in both Houses a week ago, yet the media did not notice. One of my colleagues raised the issue of the delays in driver testing and a full response was provided by then Minister of State, Mr. Bobby Molloy. Three months later the media made a major fuss, having discovered the information that had been made available to this House. Last week we discussed the question of the capping of the supplementary rent allowance during Labour Party Private Members' time and four days later the media discovered the story. We should to say to our friends in the media that they should pay a little attention because real business is done in both Houses of the Oireachtas. Journalists do not have to create artificial stories because real stories are raised if they paid attention, which they can only do if they are present in the Press Gallery.

There was torrential rain in Cork earlier. I would like the Leader to raise with the Minister for Transport the conditions which Iarnród Éireann imposes on its customers. I saw people queuing in torrential rain to buy parking tickets at machines which are located in the open despite the availability of plenty of shelter at the station in question. It is the most idiotic parking facility that has ever been conceived, even by the most obdurate bureaucracy