Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I accept that. However, the general tone of the debate last night was not such that any efforts were made to use children as a target or otherwise. The debate will be helpful in future and Members should read the Official Report of the debate because I was particularly impressed by the sensitivities that were expressed and by the forward thinking that also was evident.

I agree with Senator Fitzgerald and it may be helpful to have a debate on the downside of the Celtic tiger. There must be more to progress than fast cars, designer clothes, big houses, drugs parties and so on. There is much more to life than that and the old quality of life, on which we all prided ourselves so much, is now under attack in some ways and this issue must be considered. In particular, I find there is not a great sense of responsibility shown in some areas by parents towards the control of their children. In many cases, children are parentless for most of the day.

As for the aforementioned tragic case, there were reports on the radio this morning of cases in which eight year olds and ten year olds have physically attacked older people, which is highly worrying. I also heard on radio this morning that the crime under discussion could not even be described as a crime of passion because one of those involved had time to go home and get a screwdriver before returning to kill two innocent people. The references for the victims showed they were models in the community and in their workplaces and this is a highly worrying development. In addition, drunken louts feel they can terrorise and make fun of older people. All these issues must be considered. While I am unsure whether they necessarily should come in under a debate on institutions, everyone must pause and take stock of the present position. There has been an erosion of values in society and lives are being taken on a daily basis. The approach of accepting that life is sacred is no longer present. Even acknowledging the wonderful progress the country has made, we are not fulfilling out role as legislators if we do not get off the bandwagon every so often to analyse this issue in a much deeper way.