Alan Kelly (Labour)

I join Senator Fitzgerald in welcoming the publication of the report into cancer care in the midlands, which is overdue. I thought we had learned our lessons with regard to timelines for publication and giving those affected adequate time to study these reports prior to publication. It is not right or proper that people are given hours to study them before they are published. I hope this will change but, unfortunately, it has not changed yet. People should be treated with dignity and given more time to study reports into issues which directly affect them.

I remind the House of the outstanding report into the Rebecca O'Malley case. She is very concerned about its publication. I understand the Health Information and Quality Authority has an issue from a legal perspective with regard to its publication. I raised the fact that legal necessities must be dealt with and the report must be published so lessons can be learned. I encourage that the fine line which exists in this regard be decided upon soon and that the report be published.

Genuine concerns about changes in the economy are raised given the February results, particularly with regard to tax receipts. We have known for a while that stamp duty receipts are down. I do not want to scaremonger but we need to have a debate on this with the Minister for Finance. A change has occurred in the economy with regard to corporation tax, VAT and capital gains tax receipts which have decreased considerably. We are talking in the region of €470 million. Capital gains tax receipts have decreased by 34%.

With the change in the economy we are seeing redundancies. This House has debated the issue of lifelong learning. We must examine the changing economic situation and how it will affect us socially. I hate the word "reskilling". It is not an appropriate one for people who are already skilled. We must examine how people's skills can be moved and diversified into new areas of industry so people are not left for long on dole queues. This would be a good debate. Comments such as those made by the Construction Industry Federation with regard to attacking employees' pay and conditions are not helpful. It is negative energy and we need to use positive energy to address this issue quickly.