Joe O'Toole (Independent)

As today's Private Members' motion is on the budget and will take place within an hour and a quarter of the beginning of the Minister for Finance's Budget Statement, will the Leader ensure the proposer and seconder of the motion and spokespersons receive a copy of the budget speech as soon as it is distributed? This will give us time to prepare our speeches.

The Kyoto Agreement is becoming a global issue with the news that Russia has now decided that it will not sign up to it. Russia and the US are outside of the agreement, on a day when France has had huge floods and the winter has hardly started. I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, to take up this issue in Europe. It must be dealt with and Ireland can be an honest broker. Europe has acted responsibly on this issue in the past and needs to do so again. It is not just about the two big superpowers. The US must be convinced that it is a part of the world, not some separate place, and must play its part, as well as Russia.

This House passed a resolution in May on auctioneering practices. The Government agreed to pursue a report into the auctioneering sector and to ensure young people buying houses are treated properly. I ask the Leader to find out the position on this report. In other countries, developments have been made on the process of buying and selling of houses. One of the huge costs for people making a bid is the survey. In some countries, house surveys now have to be paid for by the vendor. This makes for a fair auction. People cannot be allowed to put their houses on the market with no intention of selling, as happens regularly in Ireland, to find out what price it will make so they can talk about it down the pub on Saturday night. Young people are being dragged along by these difficulties in the auctioneering area.