David Norris (Independent)

I beg the Cathaoirleach's pardon — no insult was meant to him. The time to be measured is actually the time from the end of the announcement of the Business of the Seanad, including the announcement of matters on the Adjournment, until the time the Leader or Acting Leader stands up. It is important that we maintain this timeframe.

Perhaps the Committee on Procedure and Privileges should consider the way in which this House is consistently treated with contempt by committees of both Houses. Yesterday, for the umpteenth time, the Joint Committee on Transport was scheduled to meet at a time that clashed directly with the Order of Business of this House. Members of the Seanad should boycott those committees to put them in their place.

In light of the fact that we are establishing a committee to consider CIA rendition flights, I had a meeting yesterday with senior gardaí, who were asked to meet me by the Garda Commissioner, to whom I had written. They made the point that the United Nations convention against torture legislation, which was introduced through this House some years ago, does not confer rights on the Garda to enter the aircraft in question or to arrest persons even if there is strong information that they may be subjecting people to torture. We need to consider these gaps in legislation.

We should have a debate on the Middle East in light of the Palestinian elections. Some people regret that Hamas will obviously be the largest party. I hope it will be put into a situation in which it will have to form a coalition with the parties led by Mustafa Barghouti and Hanan Ashrawi. We would be very foolish not to encourage this development. In Ireland we encouraged the progression of the IRA through Sinn Féin into some degree of participation in parliamentary democracy. The same should be done in the Middle East.

I agree we should have a debate on road safety. However, as legislators, we must clean up our own act. We should put pressure on county managers and county councils because the real reason there is such a problem with road safety is not just the behaviour of young people and drinking, but because the operation of speed limits and road bumps is chaotic and there is no consistency or coherence.

Two deeply tragic situations have arisen. A talented, lovely young woman, Ms Aisling Gallagher, was killed approximately one year ago as a result of the condition of the road surface, to which attention had been drawn.