Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

I rise to support the views expressed by Senator O'Toole and echoed by others on the barbarous treatment of the young Saudi woman. We should be unequivocal in our condemnation of this at the highest levels and I ask the Leader of the House to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to raise this issue at the relevant forum and make a firm statement on it.

In the light of Government policy on carbon emissions and the attempt to limit the purchase of carbon credits, and our policy on quality of life issues, the need for economic progress and the amount of time people spend in traffic, would the Leader consider a debate on the lack of progress on the development of the rail network? I specifically request that the Leader finds out why urgent priority is not being given to the Navan-Dublin rail line and park and ride facilities at Navan, with the continuation of the link from Navan to Kingscourt?

Is the Leader of the House of the opinion that there is need for an inquiry into why the M3 is being constructed without a parallel railway? What vested interests prevented a parallel rail corridor from Cavan to Dublin? It is a shocking oversight.

I thank the Leader for his assurances last week that the discriminatory means testing of non-contributory pensions would be investigated. What progress has been made with those investigations?