Joe O'Toole (Independent)

In terms of the cost of travel, there were two items on "RTE News" this morning. One was the cost of sending Ministers abroad and the exorbitant cost of hiring a full aeroplane and canvassing all over Europe to send a few asylum seekers back to Africa. The latter cost double the price of sending the Ministers abroad. RTE should get its act together on the relative importance of issues, if it believes the second item on the news should be about Ministers going abroad for St. Patrick's Day. I am a disinterested party in this. I would not want to waste my St. Patrick's Day by watching a parade in a distant city and drinking green beer afterwards with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, or whatever. I am grateful to those Ministers who give their time to doing that. It is crucially important work that goes with the ministerial portfolio. It is important culturally and in terms of diplomacy, business, the national profile, tourism development and connecting to our diaspora, including emigrant groups, around the world. This work should and must be done by Ministers and I offer them my full support. RTE should consider this and ask whether the money is well spent — I certainly believe it is.

I take Senator Fitzgerald's point that the groups the Ministers meet bear some re-examination, but that is a slightly different issue. On the weekend of St. Patrick's Day abroad, people feel more Irish. I was railroaded into duty in this regard once when I happened to be in a foreign country that a Minister was not able to visit. The embassy officials and the Irish-connected Vice President of that country, who knew I was present, urged me to review the parade, which I did to my extraordinary embarrassment. I admire the Ministers who give up their St. Patrick's weekend for this kind of stuff.

The Director of Corporate Enforcement, Paul Appleby, has raised again the difficulty he is having in implementing our legislation requiring that we deal with directors who, for various reasons, have acted recklessly. I refer to people who, for some reason, have been found by the courts not to be fit persons for the office of director. Mr. Appleby feels he has not the authority to implement the legislation. I have a vested interest in this matter because, some years ago, I chaired the audit review group that produced recommendations on this matter. Mr. Paul Appleby was the secretary in the secretariat at the time and I worked very closely with him. The easiest way to deal with this matter is to ask the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy John McGuinness, who deals with this area and who has recently discussed regulation in the House, to indicate the needs in this area and explain how the legislation works, if it is workable, such that we can be sure that those acting as directors are fit to do so. He should state whether the legislation needs to be changed.