Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Senator should not worry as this provides me with an opportunity to state clearly the admiration felt by all in these Houses and in Ireland for such marvellous organisations, including Inclusion Ireland, the Brothers of Charity in Limerick, the Bray Partnership, the County Monaghan Partnership, the Galway advocacy service, the Longford advocacy forum, the Mayo partnerships, the centres in Cork city, as well as those located in counties Clare, Donegal and Westmeath. I could go on as all counties contain an advocacy group or service, or a citizens information board, all of which perform excellent work. I am trying to ensure that together, we will pull together a national movement with plenty of local volunteers that provides a first class service with certain standards of quality and uniformity to deliver a quality service across the board. I join with Senator Cox and other Members in paying tribute to all those excellent groups.

I should explain a point raised by Senator Cox. The outgoing board of Comhairle had 20 members. I believe Members will concur with the advice I received, which was to reduce this number to 15. In so doing, the number of people to be appointed specifically to represent the disability sector will be reduced from 25% to 20%. However, if one reduces the numbers on a board from 20 to 15, all groups involved get squeezed and this is not the only group to be allocated a lower representation. Nevertheless, there is nothing to prevent me or future Ministers from appointing other members of the board to seek to ensure that the disability sector is fully represented. I gave a commitment to this effect in the Dáil. The only agenda arises from numerical necessity because of a reduction in numbers.

Apart from its disability role, the citizens information board also plays a major role in providing information through the citizens information centres to old and young people, teenagers and families, including those in crisis. It has a range of responsibilities. I appreciate the opportunity to explain this is purely a numbers situation. I am sure it can be dealt with.

I thank Senator Quinn who greatly supported the name change. I grew up as a supporter of doing as much as possible through Irish. It is with great reluctance I move away from the present title. As Senator Quinn put it, in a changing Ireland, having a website called oasis, an organisation called Comhairle and an organisation called the citizens information board in every town is too confusing, particularly for immigrants. One needs another organisation to figure how they all provide information.

I opted to change everything. The national organisation will be the citizens information board, the local organisations will be citizens information centres and the website will be www.citizensinformation.ie. If an organisation charged with providing information cannot provide information about itself we are off to a bad start. It needed to be streamlined and is no reflection on our use of the language.

Senator Mansergh quoted Seán Lemass. It is not the first time he has done so when I visited the House. He has done so on a number of occasions. It must be something I said. He is right that a rising tide does not lift all boats. A model civilised society must reach down and back and help certain boats and those who do not have boats. Helping the individuals and groups who get left behind is the mark of a modern civilised society.

I thank my officials who did an enormous amount of work on this Bill over a long number of years. This began with a Comhairle Bill in 2000. It is now 2006.