Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials with whom I had the pleasure of working in a collegial capacity. I welcome the tone of Senator Bradford's contribution and endorse, as I have done on a number of occasions in this House, the wish that decisions on decentralisation be taken, preferably within the next couple of months. The matter should not be allowed to drag on any longer.

To give Senator Bradford the correct quotation, it is: "If economics is the dismal science, then politics must be the profession of hope." This was said by C. J. Haughey at the New Ireland Forum in either October or November 1983.