David Norris (Independent)

It is highly interesting and revealing that there are voices, including some from the Government benches, indicating that choppy waters still lie ahead and this must be taken into account. The Oireachtas acted yesterday and earlier this morning to address all it could, which are the local symptoms of an international difficulty. I believe it all goes back to neoliberal economics. I refer to people such as Margaret Thatcher, who stated that one has an economy and who downplayed the role of society. To her, the economy, rather than society, was the important thing. It is not. The building societies here and in Britain demutualised, lost such social responsibility and opted for profit. At the back of much of this is greed and gambling.

The problem is that we live in a highly sophisticated world. Money is nothing other than the symbolic representation of energy. In the old days, one worked for a farmer and was repaid with a sack of corn, services or something similar. Society then moved on to the point where symbolic representations were used, such as a pound note, ten shillings or whatever it was. While that symbol represented a reality, unfortunately I believe it has become divorced from reality. Instruments have been developed such as derivatives, whereby even the bank executives did not understand with what they were gambling and this situation has arisen as a result.

I will return to a point I made yesterday, namely, that in the light of the increasing number of repossessions, we should act decisively to ensure the rights and well-being of ordinary citizens who are caught in this crunch which is not of their own making. It is important that the aforementioned detail from the framework will be monitored in order that we can examine such issues. I compliment my colleagues on ensuring the amendment from this House, of which Members can be justly proud, went through.

While I agree with my colleague, Senator O'Toole, when he raised the question of water, the focus may have been somewhat narrow. It is not simply a question of the Shannon. Major issues exist concerning water quality nationwide. This morning information emerged regarding a highly serious situation in the Drogheda and Dundalk areas in respect of a significant element of lead pollution, which apparently was up to four times the level of safety. I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate on water quality as a national issue, rather than being confined to the Shannon.

Next Sunday will mark the 40th anniversary of the attack by the authorities in Northern Ireland on the civil rights march in Derry and this will be commemorated. In that context, would it not be appropriate to review developments in the North of Ireland in the form of a Seanad debate? There is much to be welcomed. The agreement between extremely opposed parties in the North is something that astonishes those who, like me, lived through the Troubles. However, there is some way to go because yesterday I was shocked to read, on my return from abroad, that Unionists on Limavady Borough Council have blocked the extending of the freedom of the borough to a former Presbyterian minister, the Reverend David Armstrong.

The proposal was made to commemorate the fact that on Christmas Day nearly a quarter of a century ago Reverend Armstrong walked across the road from his Presbyterian church to give Christmas greetings to the Roman Catholic congregation of the church of his friend, a Roman Catholic priest, Fr. Kevin Mullan. I come from a Southern Unionist background and as an Anglican and, I suppose, Protestant, I cannot understand how, in terms of decent Unionism or anything approximating to decent Protestantism, the Unionist members of Limavady Borough Council could refuse to give consent to this proposal and effectively block it. There is nothing in my understanding of Unionism and certainly Protestantism that one would put oneself in the corner of the bully boys without at least providing an adequate explanation of one's actions. I hope the House will call upon the Unionist members of the council to do so.