David Norris (Independent)

Will the Leader indicate when the landlord and tenant Bill will come before the House? I hope the Government will reconsider the position in respect of the legislation. If not, I will do my best to have it amended because of the most astonishing notion it contains regarding the protection of landlords who do not make proper declarations of tax. This will be done by making it impossible for the Revenue to gain access to information that is gathered by this group. Revenue should have access to such information. I am aware of many situations where full disclosure for tax purposes is not made and that is a scandal. We should not be going down this avenue and I hope the Government will amend the Bill.

From the schedule of business for this week, I understand that there may be statements on Iraq tomorrow. I do not wish to jump the gun, but will the Leader indicate whether she will accept the suggestion I made that we use this procedure to pass the resolution tabled by the Independents? I used extremely mild wording in the resolution to ensure that it would not cause offence and in order to encourage its acceptance. It requests that the Minister for Foreign Affairs ensure that the Governments of the United Kingdom and the United States live up to their obligations under the Geneva Convention, etc., in terms of assisting civilian casualties of war. The resolution was passed unanimously by the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, but it would strengthen our hand if it was also passed by the Seanad. I do not believe that it contains anything which might prove overly offensive, it should not be too controversial and it would be of assistance to those of us interested in the continuing situation in Iraq if it could be passed. I do not know if the Leader will agree to that. Perhaps she could inform us of the position in the morning.