Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Nuair a tharlóidh sé, tá súil agam nach mbeidh reifreann eile i mbaile fearainn eile ar imeall Gaeltachta ag iarraidh go n-athrófar an logainm ó Ghaelainn go Béarla toisc nach dtaitnaíonn sé le daoine bheith ainmnithe mar chuid den Ghaeltacht. Má theastaíonn le pobal an Daingin an logainm a athrú go Béarla, ba chóir go n-imeoidh siad amach as an Ghaeltacht. Ní féidir liom theacht ar an réiteach go mbeidh ainm oifigiúil Béarla ar bhaile atá in ainm is a bheith sa nGaeltacht. Ní thuigim sin agus níor thuig mé riamh é.

I have little to add to the comments of my colleagues on the rail strike, except that whenever there is an operational problem in Irish Rail, the workers are always wheeled out by management. I have never seen a manager on a platform when trains are delayed or overcrowded. Usually a junior staff member is presented. I recall a very nice gentleman walking through the train one day saying, "I'm really sorry the train is overcrowded. It is not my fault. You should take it up with management who makes these decisions." One would spend a long time looking for Irish Rail management after 5 p.m. daily or on a Sunday when trains are sometimes overcrowded. I agree the industrial action is entirely wrong and I am bemused by it. I recall the Garda sought more money to use the PULSE system, which was intended to make its job easier. I am never too sure why people want more pay when they are about to be given improved equipment to do their jobs better. It is always a mystery.

However, Irish Rail management agreed drivers needed additional training over the weekend. There might be ambivalence or uncertainty about whether people are properly trained and while the action is wrong, there are issues. On Friday evening, the management conceded at the last hour that there might be a training deficit issue, which I find quite frightening. This issue is not just about one individual, as these trains are full of hundreds of people. Let them go back to work, let these issues be resolved and let the long-suffering people have access to trains that are less than 20 years old, commuters on the Cork to Dublin route having suffered for quite a while as a result of the older trains.

Ten reports on ten different accident and emergency services have been extracted from the Department of Health and Children. The reports were compiled for the Department using taxpayers' money — the Tánaiste would call it "our money", because she is a great defender of taxpayers' and Government money — but they were to be kept secret until the Freedom of Information Act was invoked by a national newspaper. Now that the reports have been published by the national newspaper, could the Leader ensure they are also placed in the Oireachtas Library so that Members are not marginalised again on a debate about information? Notwithstanding the spin in a Sunday newspaper, those reports confirm that the accident and emergency service is a mess. That is not the fault of the people working on the front line. We ought to see those reports and it is peculiar that they had to be extracted using the Freedom of Information Act.

I received a letter last week from Christian Aid about conditions in the Palestinian territories. Among the issues raised in the letter, it was pointed out that the occupying power is responsible for the well-being of the occupied people. It is a profound breach of international law for the Israeli Government to use the people of Palestine as hostages. Ten Israelis have been killed in an horrific car bombing and 20 Palestinians killed by the Israeli defence forces in the same period of time. The two to one ratio continues and I suspect that it is a deliberate ratio. For every one Israeli that is killed, two Palestinians are killed. Some people have tried to pretend that the crisis was over. I ask the Minister to come before the House and explain how the EU proposes to ensure that security and public services are sustained if it is going to ignore the government of the Palestinian territories. This is a humanitarian crisis that was not caused by an act of God, nor by a natural disaster, but by the deliberate policy of the US, Israel and the EU.