Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The thing to remember about benchmarking is that it was such a success that we are now talking about benchmarking mark II. It is a bit like New York: "so good we named it twice". We might do it many more times.

The matter I want to raise has nothing to do with drinks sponsorship, although it is related to the issue of sponsorship in general. We had a discussion last night on the dormant accounts fund, which I will not reopen. There is currently a major debate taking place about sponsorship in education, including the sponsorship of schools, sporting events for young children, computers etc. Much criticism is focused on schools for seeking sponsorship from McDonald's, Coca Cola and other groups. It is time we took a stand on behalf of parents, communities, staff and principals. This is not a matter of choice for them. They are trying to provide a service and are being forced to take decisions they do not like. It is wrong to blame school communities and educational institutions for accepting sponsorship when the Government has left a gap to be filled. We should be very careful about criticising them.

On No. 1 in today's Order of Business, I reluctantly agreed yesterday to not having a debate on it until it came back from the committee. Over the past 12 years I have time and again raised in this House the issue of the approval and recognition of local abattoirs, which would facilitate traceability. My colleague, Senator Quinn, also has views on that issue. He and I have discussed this in the House on many occasions. It is not good enough that we are told there are technical difficulties. That proves there should be debate. We all know local butchers who cannot kill their own meat. We have seen the European Union spend €1 billion on the traceability of beef and the costs imposed on retailers and supermarkets in trying to ensure traceability. This is a very important step. It also deals with the issue of the cost to the consumer. I would like a debate, however brief, or even an explanation from the Department of where we are going on this. I feel very uneasy about taking this without debate.

Recently I was critical of the Fianna Fáil Party for not dealing with issues before they became public. On this occasion I must eat my words. I am delighted that members of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party have taken a strong line on the Aer Rianta Bill. I agree with them. There is no rush with this legislation, which was originally intended to make provision for the production of business plans and finished by providing for a group sitting around the table in Dublin to tell the management in Shannon or Cork how to do its business. That legislation is daft and is going nowhere. We should take our time until we get it right. There is no rush to get this through during this session. I hope we will not see it on the Order of Business until it has been put into proper and acceptable shape. We can deal with it in the autumn.