Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

We agree with today's Order of Business and welcome the opportunity to make statements in the House concerning the recent death of His Holiness, Pope John Paul II. There are some matters I would like to raise on the Order of Business with the permission of the Cathaoirleach.

Will the Leader ascertain from the Revenue Commissioners and specifically the Minister for Finance why, in regard to Revenue's investigation into another form of tax evasion by persons who had investments in insurance and unit-linked products over a period of time, there is no investigation into the insurance industry, specifically into insurance companies that were aiding and abetting this practice and were putting forward to investors the opportunity to evade tax? If the culture was as rotten as it appears to have been over a period of decades, insurance companies, the banks and the big agencies have a great responsibility for the way in which they sold these products. Up to 200,000 people, many of them small-time investors, will be hung out to dry while the insurance industry gets off scot-free. We need an explanation from the Revenue Commissioners and from the Government as to why there is no initial investigation into the insurance industry at this stage. I ask the Leader to take that matter up with the relevant Minister.

I pay tribute to the off-duty garda who yesterday, not far from where I live in my constituency, acted in a brave and heroic way which we rarely see when faced with a most violent situation. The garda tackled someone who was brandishing a knife and was about to rob a substantial sum of money from a post office. The way in which officers put their lives on the line is an example of the daily commitment of the Garda Síochána to this country. Perhaps the Leader would pass on my comments, and those of all colleagues, to the Garda Commissioner.