Feargal Quinn (Independent)

We have a rather small amount of work for today with just one Bill before the House. We had a very good debate yesterday on the ESRI mid-term review of the national development plan. A few days after that report was published, the annual competitiveness league report was published. It indicated that Ireland moved from 11th in the world in its ability to compete to 24th last year and 30th this year. As our economic future depends on our competitiveness, the matter did not get the attention yesterday that it might have had the report been published before the ESRI report. I ask the Leader to arrange for a debate on this issue in the near future so we do not lose sight of the matter.

During the summer there were serious blackouts in North America, particularly in the north-east of the United States, and also in Italy. We have come to assume such incidents would never happen in Ireland. We should have a debate on the matter at some stage and get a report from the Minister responsible to ensure enough steps are being taken, given that much privatisation has taken place in energy, regarding both gas and electricity, to protect us from the possibility of a blackout.