Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Something extraordinary happened yesterday. It relates to a matter which the Leader and I have often discussed. The Convention on the Future of Europe was discussed at great length in this House, although one would not pick this up from the newspaper coverage. I hope the media in general will spare me their sanctimonious editorials over the next six months about politicians not doing their job of informing people of what is happening at the Convention. We cannot and should not determine what the media deal with – that would be entirely wrong – but let us at least be spared the sanctimonious editorials. The meeting of the Joint Committee on European Affairs was covered by The Irish Times but I regarded the debate in this House as an extremely useful exercise.

On a related matter, I ask the Leader to find out the reason the Government wishes to delete a reference to the rights of children from the draft European constitution. In a country which has experienced such trauma in relation to the neglect of our children, for which nobody is entirely free of guilt or responsibility, why would we propose an amendment to the draft constitution for Europe to exclude a guarantee of the rights of children? That is a mystery to me. I suspect it is also a mystery to the Leader and I ask her to find out the reason. In yesterday's debate Proinsias De Rossa lavishly praised the work at the Convention of the Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs. Perhaps the Leader will catch up with him and establish the motivation for that position.

The issue of law and order is most important. However, no matter what debates we have in this House, if the public believes the law is not the same for everybody, we will not be taken seriously. If the Garda Commissioner feels free to say gardaí may break the speed limits when they like, without guidelines or a code of practice, the right impression is not being created. I fully accept that, for reasons of national security or in dealing with crime, gardaí have to do certain things, as is also the case with ambulances. However, if the Garda Commissioner's view is that, just because one is a garda, one can do what one likes and if he does not believe—