Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

We agree to that.

In recent years our national holiday has been turned into a drink-filled freshers week binge. We have seen terrible instances of drunkenness and disorderly behaviour on the streets of Dublin following the St. Patrick's Day parade. We have also seen a large number of arrests, particularly in the past three years, in Dublin city centre. I endorse calls made yesterday by a number of organisations in this city that off-licence sales be banned for part, if not all, of St. Patrick's Day. The reason I raise this issue on the Order of Business is not only because of the instances which occurred last Saturday where much of the disorder was drink-related but I understand this proposal may require emergency legislation to allow the Government to prohibit off-licence sales in part of Dublin city given the proliferation of outlets in which drink can be sold.

It would be sensible to consider this proposal to prohibit the sale of drink in the area of the parade on St. Patrick's Day to ensure public safety, that the event remains a family-friendly one and that the hooligans and thugs off their faces with drink on the day do not turn our national holiday into a drinking binge. I will repeat that call when the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform comes into the House today. I ask the Government to consider this proposal because it is worthy of consideration.

Over the past year we have seen an explosion in the number of TB cases. Between 2003 and 2004, 437 cases arose. That is a 30% increase over the 12 month period. Would it be possible for time to be made available in the next two weeks for the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children to come to the House to address this issue? This country was successful in eradicating TB through the excellent work of Noel Browne and others in the 1940s and 1950s. It would be a shame if TB were to take a foothold again. I ask the Government to also reconsider its decision to close the TB facility at Peamount, which is the only facility in the country where this disease can be treated. While advances in medicine have been made since the 1940s and 1950s we must be vigilant to ensure that TB does not get a foothold here again. I understand from people in the medical world that it takes somewhere between ten to 15 years to eradicate the disease once its takes root again. I ask the Leader to arrange for statements on this issue in the next few weeks