David Norris (Independent)

It was marvellous. Moreover, there was a smell of cooking from the kitchen. They did not use bought-in television dinners, rather they made their own bread and all the rest of it. It was lovely.

Its managers immediately wrote to me and asked me to visit them at once. It was run by the old girls of Alexandra College, who were charming. It was a real old-style St. Trinian's effort. However, they did not operate in the real world at all. They charged something like €200 a month for the service, which would not even cover the cost of the food. I told them to take the decision to stay open, that everything would flow from that and that I would take responsibility.

I contacted the unnamed person whose name I put on the record earlier and she secured a subvention for them. It was the kind of subvention that is being addressed by this Bill because for some reason, they had not been in receipt of it. Consequently, any old dear who did not have the money was topped up. I then contacted the grand nephew of one of our greatest writers, namely, James Joyce. I will not name the grand nephew because Members are not allowed to do so. However, we are at least allowed to name one of our great writers. He was a financial expert.