Seanad debates

Thursday, 1 February 2007

11:00 am

Photo of Feargal QuinnFeargal Quinn (Independent)

The use of the English language is interesting. The Central Applications Office this morning stated that the Minister yesterday asked whether it "could" extend. The CAO answered that, legally, it cannot. It then claimed it was not asked by the Minister "to" extend. Talk about being customer friendly. Students are being failed at probably the most stressful time they have experienced, namely, when deciding on their careers and futures. It seems sympathy is needed in this area. The words I heard today seemed to be a play on the English language. I believe the Minister will by now have asked the CAO "to" extend rather than asking "could" it extend.

We complain often in this House but not always. Yesterday was the first time I took the road home from Leinster House this year. Travelling at 6 p.m. I found the traffic worked well due to the opening of the new tunnel since the House last sat in December. It also worked well this morning as there were no trucks on the road. I want to offer my congratulations for all of the effort that went into creating the tunnel. It took a long time and much hassle but we set our minds to do something, and we have achieved our aim of taking trucks off the streets of Dublin and having traffic run smoothly.

May we have the same application with regard to making Leinster House paperless. I was stunned yesterday and today to note the huge amount of paper used. There is no longer a need for this. I spoke to a person in Brussels yesterday who said their office has become a paperless office. It is now possible to have an office where people no longer have paper at their desks and come to work solely with their laptops, and sit wherever it suits. That is achievable. It must be possible to take the first small steps towards it. I cannot believe the amount of waste paper we receive in the Houses, knowing the majority of it goes into the bin because the information is already available on the Internet.

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