David Norris (Independent)

Adi Roche addressed a significant meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. I spoke to Ms Roche before the meeting and she asked me to raise a specific matter on today's Order of Business, namely, the fact that she welcomes — as does everyone else — that we are moving towards an intergovernmental agreement regarding the children of Chernobyl. The Government has asked Ms Roche to assume the role of intermediary in order to establish this intergovernmental agreement. Ms Roche requested that we should ask the Government to deal with this as a matter of urgency. Ireland has been centrally involved in this matter and it could be the first country to sign the agreement, which would put us in a good position and which would reflect the feeling of the Irish people on the children of Chernobyl.

I urger the Leader to use her good offices in respect of a related and extremely important matter. The children to whom I refer, who have been so badly affected by radiation and who were met with hospitality, welcomed by Irish families and given the opportunity to enjoy the Irish countryside, used to be able to use the visa waiver scheme. Under the latter, the families involved were not obliged to travel to Moscow to obtain visas. However, the scheme has been dropped and the unfortunate families are being obliged to travel to Moscow to try to procure visas, which is expensive, time consuming and militates against what Adi Roche and those involved in the campaign are trying to achieve. I am sure that all Members would, on behalf of the children, their parents and the host families in Ireland, urge the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to reconsider the issue and restore the visa waiver scheme for these vulnerable children.

I am glad Senators O'Toole, Coghlan and others referred to water quality in Galway. This is a serious matter and it was been made into a political football. I listened in horror to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, after he had flown by helicopter to Galway, stating that this matter should not be turned into a political football and then refusing to meet members of any of the other political parties represented on the council and indicating that the only person who had taken action in respect of the matter was a Fianna Fáil candidate who had carried out an analysis of the water. That is utter and disgraceful rubbish.