Ivor Callely (Fianna Fail)

I concur with colleagues on the importance of having discussion and debate in the Chamber on matters of national importance. I also wholeheartedly support the views expressed on gangland crime. I congratulate the Garda on some of its actions in the past 24 hours and its success in putting one of Limerick's serious criminals behind bars, where I hope he will remain for a long time. I also hope his brother will follow him.

I ask that, rather than trying to score political points, the leaders of the political parties and Independent group agree a procedure to allow regular discussions to take place on matters of national importance. I fear that if the House were to agree to hold a debate on gangland crime or the economy today, a Minister or Minister or State who comes to the House because the relevant Minister is not available will be slagged off, as it were. We cannot expect Ministers to wait for the House to order its business before arranging their diaries for the day. If we are genuine and sincere on this issue, we should ask the leaders to enter into meaningful discussions to try to alter the current arrangements for taking the Order of Business with a view to accommodating a specific period for holding debates agreed by the House.

I have raised two important issues in the past two weeks. I asked the Leader to enter into negotiations and discussions with other party leaders, groups and individual Senators to wear the green jersey and support Irish small and medium size enterprises and buy Irish goods. I will not ask the Deputy Leader to respond as I made the request to the Leader and he should provide a progress report on what action has been taken in this regard. This is an important issue on which the Seanad can set and drive forward the agenda.

The second issue I raised was the availability of bank credit to businesses and households. I am concerned about the impact of the credit squeeze on the economy. While I welcome the recent interest rate reductions, including the cut in the European Central Bank's interest rate, and await with interest the outcome of the Irish banks' efforts to raise money in the international markets in the coming weeks, the issue of fundamental importance is the availability of credit. I ask that the Leader report Senators' comments on this issue to the Minister for Finance.