Ivana Bacik (Independent)

That would be worth doing.

I support Senator Fitzgerald's call for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to come to the House for a debate on the economy. At a time when we are hearing from the Government about what it calls necessary savings or adjustments but what any sane person would call cutbacks, and in view of the fact that these cutbacks will hurt the most vulnerable, it is important that we have such a debate. I have spoken before in the House about the difficulties faced by staff, particularly HSE front-line staff, who have nobody to replace them when they go on maternity leave or annual leave and are therefore forced to offer reduced or scaled down services to patients and clients. It is appalling, and it is important that we ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to come to the House to deal with this issue.

I also ask the Deputy Leader for resumption of the debate on a Bill I introduced in the House in October, the Climate Protection Bill 2007. It is still on Second Stage and there is time left on this Stage. I have had correspondence from the Deputy Leader in which he made various points about how other things needed to fall into place, but I ask him to ensure that we resume debate on this Bill early in the next session. It is important, for all the reasons expressed when the Bill was first introduced, that rather than dealing with this issue through political promises, we introduce legislation geared at reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change. This week Fianna Fáil Senators put down a back-slapping motion congratulating the Government on how much has been done to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. However, it would be far more practical if we were to pass legislation that sets binding targets, not just for this Government but for future Governments, in tackling climate change.