David Norris (Independent)

Senator Mooney may make the distinction in his speech and I will look after mine. I am talking about the situation there where innocent people are being killed, and where, for example, in a previously targeted attack, a 1,000 lb. bomb was dropped where they expected somebody from Hamas to be and 15 civilians were killed. The really sinister aspect is that there is political direction by the Israeli Government and it pains me to have to say it.

I ask the Leader to raise the following matters with the appropriate Minister. This morning we had a useful and interesting meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport. It highlighted that as a result of the precipitated deregulation of taxi services Ireland has been cited in a Swedish report as the worst example of deregulation of 13 capital cities of Europe surveyed, but also that as a result of this deregulation the number of wheelchair accessible taxis has dropped from 800 to 13, which is astonishing when we are supposed to be looking at the rights of people with a disability.