Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I also condemn what happened to that young woman in O'Connell Street. It is appalling enough that any young male or group of males would even contemplate committing such a dreadful act on the main street in our capital city or anywhere else but the fact that it took place in full view of many people who, for whatever reason, did not intervene is even more appalling. Perhaps Senator Norris is right when he stated many people were afraid to intervene. It is a reflection on our society that such an act could happen and that people could stand by and watch it happen. It is time we had a debate around this area and people's responsibilities.

I also ask for another debate in respect of issues raised by a report on demographics and population change in Ireland by NCB Stockbrokers, which I understand was published towards the end of last week. The report produced some very interesting statistics, none of which surprised me. One statistic that struck me was the finding that by 2010, Ireland will have the highest percentage of young people under 15 and the lowest number of people under 65 in Europe.

This goes against all the arguments from the Government about the future and the pensions time bomb. This argument has been thrown out the door because of the way our population is growing. Our pensions will be very secure because of the young population. We will have enough workers to look after the pensions of the future. Our priorities are skewed in the wrong direction. We should be more concerned about how we will cope with all the young people, babies and young children in our country and how we will provide them with schools and related facilities instead of putting by billions of euro for pensions for the future when we know we will have sufficient workers to provide for them. It would be worthwhile discussing the NCB report here. Alternatively, representatives from the Government could come before the House, explain from where its data are coming and why its priorities are skewed towards the older people of the future when we know there is a time bomb in respect of how we are going to look after young people.