Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I support the calls for debates on equality and the economy. The first of these is a debate on equality and Senator Fitzgerald suggestion that it should be linked to the first vote for women in an electoral contest is as good a peg as any on which to hang it. With regard to spending curbs on State agencies, no one in the House can state any agency should be unaffected. However, obvious concerns are raised with regard to the proposed curbs on the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority. Earlier proposals to merge two agencies would have made this even worse and a proposal to share the secretariat at least is a sensible element to try to keep costs down in both agencies. However, I stated in this House previously, and I will repeat, that the idea of a shared secretariat where one agency is meant to operate in another town is nonsense.