Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I agree with the sentiments expressed by Senator O'Toole. It is approximately six months or possibly a year since the Taoiseach rediscovered socialism and approximately two months since he rediscovered republicanism. He rediscovered the Irish language yesterday. As a token of this reconversion, will the Government agree to adequately fund TG4 and help a very successful television channel which runs on a shoestring budget instead of uttering rhetorical flourishes? It is ironic that the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was prepared to give substantially more funding to Sianel 4, the Welsh language television channel, than Irish Governments have been willing to give the equivalent service as Gaeilge.

If white phosphorous had been used by the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, in Caracas; the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, in Havana; the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, in Grozny, Chechnya; the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus or by the Iranian Government, the EU would be in emergency session today demanding a range of measures. The UN Security Council would also be in emergency session demanding penalties, sanctions and an immediate investigation. If our ostensibly non-aligned and neutral State now declines to state that the use of chemical weapons is repulsive, it has abandoned its aim of doing anything serious about such matters.

Am I the only person who finds the idea of the Minister for Defence grinning down the barrel of a gun on the pages of two newspapers repulsive and annoying?