John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I share the call for a debate on the cost of nursing homes and the future plans in this area. This Government has a fine tradition of providing for the future, as the National Treasury Management Agency encourages people to take out pensions. Two major costs most people encounter during their lives are school fees and long-term nursing home care. It is possible, through long-term and ultra long-term bonds to provide for these costs.

The Government might step in and assist through tax relief or double tax relief at top marginal rates because if people make provision early enough that small sum can become significant. If there were tax relief for the long-term bonds, as there is for pensions, using the 72 rule, which is the mathematical formula for the number of years it would take to double one's money at a return of 13%, a sum would increase tenfold over 50 years if one put it away at an early age. That would make a difference for the future.

I wish to call for a debate on the situation in Iran. For the first time we are hearing again the calls that were heard in the 1930s in Europe about the Jewish people. I address my remarks to the President of Iran who said the State of Israel should be wiped off the map. It is unacceptable for any sovereign state to hold that view and all the more so if that state becomes a nuclear power.