Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I commend the launch of the journal from the Centre for Cross-Border Studies. It is another excellent production by Andy Pollak and the rest of the group in Armagh that is concerned with ongoing work between the North and South. I know that Senator Leyden raised the issue of the Lisbon treaty. We all know that Europe has been extremely good to us in respect of moneys for various things. One aspect of that was the peace and reconciliation moneys, which were allied to the International Fund for Ireland moneys, the American Ireland Fund moneys and other sources of funding. These have created structures on the ground for community development. I ask the Leader whether we could have an immediate discussion in the House about how these structures will continue following the withdrawal of outside funding. It was said this morning that we are not in the peace process anymore but are in the next phase. Therefore, it is the national Government's responsibility to ensure that, in respect of structures that were set up to support the development of communities in areas where communities needed support and structure, it will row in and supply the funding to ensure these communities can continue. I know there are up to 130 such community development groups in Donegal.

I agree with Senator Harris about talking down the role of politicians. I include Senators, Deputies, Ministers and Ministers of State. In respect of travel, I was chairman of an Oireachtas committee for the past five years which produced 13 reports. Three of those reports cost the State nothing, other than the cost of travel to some areas to get more expertise. Instead of giving money to consultants, our expertise was able to create very good reports. For us to talk down the value of our travelling abroad and what we might learn or what other people abroad might learn from us demeans us and our jobs, is wrong and should not be stood over. I ask the Leader to find out how many minutes of advertisement we would get on prime time RTE television or radio or in the national print media for €500,000.