Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

The half hour sos means we will be free at 9 p.m. instead of 9.30 p.m., which is not too much to ask. We try to keep relatively decent hours here in the evening.

Senator Dardis said we should await clarity on the Northern Ireland issue but that he would welcome a debate. He talked also about the standards of education expertise and said that to attract inward investment it was important we had people with the knowledge and a good grounding in education to fill those jobs.

Senator Bannon echoed the call for a debate on Northern Ireland, law and order and, particularly, agriculture. He asked that the Minister for Agriculture and Food be invited to the House to discuss the inadequate labelling of sourced Irish beef.

Senator Ormonde raised the issue of Northern Ireland and the OECD report. As a teacher, like myself, she was very pleased about that. She also picked up on what Senator Brian Hayes said about the discipline problem. Discipline was always a problem in schools. It might have taken different forms but there has always been indiscipline. How it is dealt with is another matter.

Senator Norris stated 80% of people disagreed with the release of prisoners convicted of the manslaughter of Detective Garda McCabe and he continued to probe into what he alleges is the trafficking of prisoners through Shannon Airport.

Senator MacSharry also called on the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, to come to the House for a debate. He referred to Irish Business Against Litter and I am always amazed that this organisation leads the news every time it issues a statement. I did not know until yesterday that it subcontracts the work to An Taisce, which is an amazing twist. I noted that both Swords and Sligo had a bad day.

Senator Ulick Burke referred to the OECD report on education and the issue of indiscipline. Mathematics was not a strong subject among the Irish students surveyed unlike languages and science. He also called on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to introduce flexibility on local authority funding. Three-year funding envelopes are provided in various areas but such an envelope has not been introduced for local authority funding. Every October and November every street in Ireland is dug up because local authorities are trying to spend their money. One cannot travel a mile but the road is dug up. The Senator called for flexibility so that the funding could be expended in other areas earlier in the year.

Senator Feeney made a good suggestion, which is that the commission on bullying, chaired by the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Killeen, should address the indiscipline issue. That makes sense and I will put it to him.

Senator Browne referred to indiscipline. He also raised what he sees as the imbalance between what is reported in newspapers and by RTE but they do not have a mandate to copy each other.