Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I rise, primarily, to clarify something that arose on yesterday's Order of Business. I asked the Leader a specific question and I shall repeat it again for him this morning. Given that Fianna Fáil's partner in government, the Green Party, is targeting civil servants through its website, looking for financial contributions, even though civil servants above a particular grade are precluded from becoming members of political parties, will the Leader say whether a specific decision has been taken by Government to change the Ministers and Secretaries Act and whether he condones and supports what the Green Party is doing?

I join other speakers in asking the Leader for a debate on Europe in the aftermath of the Lisbon treaty referendum. Even though I do not agree with Mr. Klaus, he is entitled to his viewpoint. We are giving oxygen to the people on the "No" side of the campaign by the way we are behaving this morning. I remind Senators that 55% of the rural development programme announced by the Government is funded by Europe, without which there would be no such programme.

The budget has become a moveable document — it is not a feast but a litany of cutbacks. This morning we heard that the diabetic retinopathy screening programme, a sight test for diabetics, which was due to be rolled out this year, has been postponed until 2011. I ask the Leader to ensure that the Minister for Finance comes to the House. He has not been here since the budget, and the budget is now like an Enid Blyton novel, it is all fiction. There are no facts in it other than that we are experiencing cutbacks. That is the real fact of the budget. Today the Minister for Health and Children is refusing to change the decision on the cervical cancer vaccine despite the fact that pharmaceutical companies said they will waive the costs. It is important the Minister for Finance comes to the House because the budget is having an effect on families, young people and the elderly. We have not yet heard the Minister say that there will not be another budget in early 2009.