Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Experience is a wonderful asset in life. Having listened to all the comments here this morning, my opinion is that the father of the House, Senator Ross, has given us the benefit of his enormous experience. I agree with much of his contribution and I will listen attentively later to all the contributions on this very urgent matter. I thank the leaders for their co-operation with regard to changing the Order of Business to allow me to arrange this debate. I anticipated, as did my personal staff in my office, that this urgent matter would need to be taken on the floor of Seanad Éireann before the Taoiseach departs for his very important meeting in Brussels tomorrow. I wish him well on behalf of the people of Ireland in his serious and onerous task of letting Europe know that we still want to be part of the Union that has brought us into the 21st century and has given our future generations a major opportunity that many of us did not have when we were being reared in the Ireland of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.