John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I would like the Leader to inquire from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform as to the possibility of introducing a gun amnesty. For some time we have seen reports on the television and in newspapers, on a weekly basis, of people having been killed. There is a distinct possibility that if a gun amnesty were introduced, as happened in other states, guns would be handed in that would never be used. Given that the introduction of such an amnesty has been successful elsewhere, we should examine this possibility.

I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Transport to come to the House to discuss the possibilities of using ethanol and biodiesel and also to raise this matter with the Minister for Finance. Currently, with the decoupling of payments to the farming community and much land being used in terms of REPs, it just does not seem right that land is being underutilised when we have a wonderful opportunity to replace imports without any objection from the European Community; this is also necessary for our national economy. Such a measure would feed into the economy and more than pay for itself.