Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Senator O'Meara referred to the report of the Ombudsman for Children published today. This detailed report requires urgency and should be debated soon although I am sure it is not possible to do so this week. We had a debate here last week about prisons but one of the points to which Senator O'Meara did not refer was one made by the Ombudsman for Children on the difficulty judges have in deciding where to send a teenager, for example. In some cases where parents have begged the judges to put the child away because he or she is creating problems, the judges are loath to do so because they do not have prisons in which to put them. This is an area in which the Ombudsman for Children is not covered by the legislation passed comparatively recently. It is time for us to examine this again.

I will add one more point on risk equalisation. I know the Tánaiste's ambition and objective is to ensure competition in favour of customers. I believe she would welcome the opportunity to come here to debate this, to argue her case and to hear the views of those of us who want to stress that we all have the same objective of good value for customers. She believes this is the way to do it while some in this House do not believe it is. Let us hear her views.