Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I thank Senator O'Rourke for sharing her time and the Minister of State for coming to the House.

Senator Dardis recounted the story former Deputy Des O'Malley told of the number of Deputies who shared an office in his time. I believe my late father shared an office with him and know there was a row as to who was the favourite of the secretary. In the Dáil we have moved on considerably from this. I hope we can move on somewhat in relation to secretarial services for Senators. While Senators operate in different ways, we need personal assistants to carry out research.

Senator Dardis also referred to public access to car parking facilities and the possibility of generating tourism revenue from the Houses. It would be worth following up these ideas. For years there has been a campaign for crèche facilities. Deputy Deenihan has been campaigning for a gym. While it is a long battle to resolve such issues, they merit mention here.