Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I support the call for a further debate on decentralisation, a matter we have raised in the House on several occasions. Everybody agrees with the necessity for decentralisation and that it is socially and economically desirable but, as of now, the Government policy on decentralisation needs to be saved from Government politics on decentralisation. The plan and programme is in a mess as we saw from the figures last week. The scheme as currently envisaged will not happen. We need to debate the matter in a calm fashion, restate the benefit of decentralisation and urge the Government to think anew and get a proper scheme up and running.

Stemming from the request for debate on the Middle East, which I support, is a human rights issue, namely the situation in Tibet which has been raised on a number of occasions. As of now, we have to recognise that the Chinese authorities are making a deliberate effort to crush the people of Tibet——