Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I do not want to see that sort of tourism if it means excluding local people from services.

Earlier this week the heads of the Irish universities raised, as they have done on a number of occasions, the question of cutbacks in third level education. It is probably correct to say that primary education is more important, which it is, but the truth is that all levels of education are extremely important. However, the area which will have an immediate effect on national competitiveness is a cutback in third level education. It is a matter for the Government to sort out what it believes in. If it is saying that fewer people will graduate from our third level institutions, then it is effectively saying it is going for a lower skilled workforce. As this will have an immediate effect on the country's capacity to develop economically, there is an urgent need for a debate on funding for third level education in particular, and also the funding of research in third level education. I would like the Leader to consider this issue.

Last night a leaflet from Sinn Féin was put through my door. The last paragraph read, "Sinn Féin is dedicated to forcing a British withdrawal from the occupied Six Counties." I heard the President of Sinn Féin say the direct opposite less than two weeks ago. All of us on this island are entitled to know which is the real Sinn Féin. Is it the one which is dedicated to forcing a British withdrawal, which means forcing one million people who are British to withdraw or, alternatively, is it the nice, touchy feely language of inclusion which is articulated in Belfast when it is politically necessary? Is this a case of Sinn Féin revealing a different side because it is 200 miles south of the Border? Oireachtas Members would like to know which is the real Sinn Féin.