Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I agree that the treatment of the Gama workers and everything to do with this case is a matter for us all. We will debate the issue of migrant workers tomorrow, which I welcome because it reflects badly on the country that this should be allowed to happen. It is time a line was drawn in the sand, not only as regards this, but also because of what has happened recently to Filipino workers. My impression is that people are shocked and horrified and will not tolerate the fact that our status as a prosperous nation is being maintained at the expense of the rights of poor workers from Third World countries. I welcome tomorrow's debate and look forward to contributing to it.

I want to raise the issue of the country's environmental standards. Once more Ireland has been shown up by the European Commission as the "dirty man" of Europe. It appears that we are simply not able or willing to raise our standards to a level that is acceptable right across Europe. This has gone on for far too long and I ask the Leader to request the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to tell the Seanad what we are failing to do and what is needed to bring our environmental standards up to the required level. Finally, as I am sure the Leader has noted, the issue of child care is finally on the agenda of political party conferences. I hope this does not mean that discussion will end because there is much to talk about. I ask, in particular, that the Leader takes out the OECD report, published a few months ago, on child care in Ireland and that this be used as the basis for a debate in the future.