Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom dá mbeadh muid ábalta am a chur ar leataobh fá choinne díospóireachta ar acmhainní nádúrtha na tíre seo. I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate on natural resources, particularly those offshore. I listened to Senator Hanafin talking about Russia selling off its natural resources for the price of a house, but in some cases this State did not even get the price of a house, particularly for the Corrib gas field. Other exploration licences have been offered to multinational companies over the years. In recent years, there has been a rush to offer licences to different companies off the coast of Donegal where some nine companies are currently exploring. We need a sensible debate on what benefits accrue to Ireland from our own natural resources. Other countries use their natural resources to provide public services, but the only benefit of the old terms and conditions we have is to line the pockets of shareholders of multinational companies. Having said that, I welcome the change the Minister made on taking office concerning some of the terms involved. Nonetheless, we need to have a further debate on this matter.

I support the call for a debate on education, even though we had one recently. Implications arising from the budget include the ending of the summer work scheme, as well as the increased cost of school transport. The cost of such transport for secondary school children attending fourth and fifth year is to rise by €120 per year. We should have a debate on those budgetary issues.

Members of the Seanad should be able to table parliamentary questions in the same way as Deputies can. Senators should have a right to seek answers from Ministers by way of written questions. Many Senators are aligned to political parties and can submit parliamentary questions through Deputies in the Lower House, but Independent Senators do not have that opportunity. Such a system does not have to be part of the overall Seanad reform package, but could be introduced simply to allow all Senators to table parliamentary questions. This would speed up the Order of Business which is currently used to seek information on a range of issues.