Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I support Senator O'Toole on the prisons issue and on what was said here yesterday. I am at a loss to know who will run the two prisons to be withdrawn from the supervision of the Irish Prison Service. Will it be a management consultant? What is going on?

I am discomfited by Ministers who produce diversions. For the past 12 months the smoking ban controversy took the heat off the Minister for Health and Children. I suspect this issue is intended to take the heat off the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform at a time when many of our urban areas are terrified by rampant gangland crime, which is apparently making huge parts of the country ungovernable. It creates a wonderful smokescreen to raise the issue of prison officers' overtime, which obviously needs to be resolved.

Last week I asked for a debate on embryonic stem cell research. This matter urgently needs to be debated before the Government makes a decision about how it is going to deal with an EU proposal. This is necessary for a number of reasons. First, it is wrong in principle for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to become the arbiter of ethical decisions. Second, after the shock of the first Nice treaty referendum we thought we had moved away from the secretive EU decision making that characterised our relationship with the EU. It is still not clear whether the Government believes it needs to have the approval of the Oireachtas before it decides an issue like this. If the Government believes it can make whatever policy it likes in Europe without reference to the Oireachtas that is a recipe for trouble down the line. Ireland's attitude to the EU will be damaged and people will believe they have no say in the decision-making process. It is urgent that we have a debate, not at some vague time in the future but before 27 November, when this decision will be taken. An Oireachtas committee has already made its views known. It is time the Oireachtas was heard on the issue. It would be profoundly wrong to do otherwise.

It seems increasingly necessary that we have a debate on Aer Rianta.