Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

It is nice to see the Acting Chairman, Deputy Ann Ormonde in the Chair. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy John McGuinness, on his new portfolio and wish him well. I look forward to working with him over the next five years. It is great to see someone who has come with such a wealth of experience, enormous ability, and a large amount of energy. I look forward to very many positive new changes in the portfolio held under Deputy McGuinness as Minister of State. I have been a friend of his for a long time and it is great to see someone holding office who has come up the hard way, a man who was self-employed and made it for himself. Given such a background he has a great chance of making it for the nation.

It is stimulating, too, to be in the presence of Senator Mary White, a very successful entrepreneur in her own right, as well as Senator Feargal Quinn, who is a national figure. I took Val Doonican's one-liner, "Do what you do, do well", to heart when Senator Quinn advised business people to look after their customers. I bow to what he had to say in that regard. The thought for the week, however, is something I gleaned from the Minister of State today, when he said that failure was only something that happened on the way to success. There never was a truer word. I congratulate the Minister of State on an excellent presentation to the House. It was very uplifting and stimulating. I had looked forward to the Minister of State's visit to the Seanad, as had every Member who is here, to hear his contribution and learn of his enthusiasm for his portfolio. It was uplifting.

I agree with the Minister of State's assertion that we Irish should be, as we always have been, even through very bad times, a nation and people of "can do", rather than anything else. We are a very positive nation, which has achieved an incredible success story, particularly over the last 20 years, without any help from the media. The Irish people did it their way and owe nothing to the media.