David Norris (Independent)

May I send my sympathies to the voters of south Tipperary? This tirade is but the beginning.

I refer to the matter of Mr. Appleby, which was raised again by my colleague, Senator O'Toole. I very much agree with him and believe the language used by the Taoiseach that Mr. Appleby would have to stand in line and could not be moved up the queue was extraordinarily cavalier and dismissive, particularly as the Taoiseach has had to answer questions about business practice, blank cheques and so on and has had to acknowledge that, as an accountant, he did not behave in the way he should have. We need to be very careful about the standard of behaviour in terms of business life.

I call for a debate on drugs. Mr. Gay Byrne was extremely courageous in what he said. I have said similar things in this House over a number of years and I recall John O'Connell, when he was health spokesman for Fianna Fáil, state that the case for legalising drugs such as heroin, which he supported, needed to be examined. I agree with that. We must legalise, control and regulate. However, this cannot be done by a small country like Ireland on its own. All we can do is initiate the debate. This House would be a good place to do so because there would be various views. There would be people who would strongly disagree with this point of view but at least we would place the issues before the public in an intelligent way. However, this is not being done on various radio programmes.

I heard a very decent woman, who is head of an anti-drugs agency, state on Pat Kenny's radio programme that the driving of someone who smoked one joint would be seriously impaired three months later. That is simply not true. One might find microscopically detectable traces of that substance. However, the debate is not advanced by this type of nonsense. There are two sides to the argument and Seanad Éireann would be the appropriate place in which to make them.

I refer to affordable housing which the Leader said yesterday we might have the opportunity to address. Two other aspects have since been drawn to my attention. A number of the major banking institutions refuse loans if they discover the object of the loan is to acquire an affordable house. This is wrong and the Government should say to financial institutions that if they are making these enormous profits, they have a social responsibility to make loans available to the more vulnerable members of society.

In the Dublin area, affordable houses are allocated by a series of draws. That may well be fair but it is done in a very obscure way. People who have applied for a house never know when, or if, the draws have taken place or whether they have got a house until they hear through the rumour mill that somebody's sister or cousin has got one. The process must be much more open and clear so we know the system is being administered fairly. I am not saying it is being administered unfairly but it is being administered obscurely and inefficiently.