Brendan Ryan (Labour)

May we have a debate on transport policy because we do not know what is the Government's policy? The trade unions, which represent people affected by this policy, do not know either. We would all like to know if the Government's policy is the reassuring tones of the Taoiseach or the aggressive line taken by the Tánaiste. A debate is the only way to resolve that.

I do not want to spend time discussing the concert in Dublin but if people want to move it to Cork we would be delighted to host it. We can manage such events quite well. If the only problem is that the BBC is trying to tell us what we should do, the BBC can return to its own role and we will do it ourselves. I do not need to remind Senators what the acronym BBC represents. Not to host it because the BBC would not agree to it is the most ludicrous excuse of all.

Could we have a debate some time on accountability in the public service? Normally when a Minister comes in here to take Committee Stage of a Bill, he or she is lucky to have two or three officials, however complex the legislation. I recall in the previous Seanad dealing with a topic as complex as copyright legislation and the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, had two officials to help him. When we held Committee Stage on the Finance Bill here last week there were 20 officials from the Department of Finance present. According to my back-of-the-envelope calculation, that cost the taxpayer at least €4,000 or €5,000.