Shane Ross (Independent)

There has already been a serious debate on the health services. Gestures of this sort, which may be designed to attract publicity, have a role. If good comes out of it, it is extremely laudable. We must say thank you to those individuals, whose names we will not remember, who offered to make contributions to the hospital in question on "Morning Ireland" and Joe Duffy's "Liveline". They should be acknowledged and not dismissed. It may be a gimmick but sometimes they can be effective.

I will repeat what I said yesterday on the Order of Business concerning the airport issue. It is important that the Leader responds to it. Another development on the issue has arisen today. We must have a debate on security at Dublin Airport. Any Member listening to this morning's Marian Finucane radio programme will realise that it is not just a security issue but a farcical situation. Between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m., in response to the recent events, there were queues of hundreds of yards. This tells us that, before, security was inadequate. Now either the authorities are involved in a publicity stunt or there was a serious problem which is only being remedied after inspectors exposed it. The Dublin Airport Authority is not on top of numbers or security. A serious debate on the direction of the Dublin Airport Authority is needed. Many Members may feel that the old regime was better than the new one. While the old regime was rotten, nothing seems to have changed, with the new regime being even worse. I never thought I would say "Come back Noel O'Hanlon, all is forgiven".