John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

Yes.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and agree with what he said. The role that the Combat Poverty Agency is to play now will be central in co-ordinating the ongoing development and implementation of the national action plan for social inclusion. Funding has ceased for the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, NCCRI, and its function will be absorbed. It seems entirely appropriate that the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for integration should look after that function. Regarding the Equality Authority, the suggestion was made that the majority of its board do not agree with the statements in the motion. The authority has said it can work within its budget for 2009, primarily by reducing overheads, and it can maintain a programme for expenditure at the level originally proposed in December 2008.

As Members of the Oireachtas, we get a great deal of literature from many different agencies in tomes that are very fancy and very expensive. Very few are read from cover to cover. They would be just as useful in the library instead of costing €20 per copy. I notice even lighthouse keepers have their own volume. There cannot be too many of those left and yet we regularly get information from that group. I wonder at the benefit of sending out a big information booklet in full colour, at such cost. Costs must be looked at very seriously in many places from which we get our information. We all have e-mail. In most cases, a summary is all we need. If we require further information we know where to find it — in the library. We must watch our costs. We are in a much changed situation and it would do the Government and the country good to ensure we watch all costs, see what waste there is and get rid of it.

There is a proposal in the motion regarding the external trade agreement between Israel and the EU and, in that respect, I advocate the monitoring of the attached human rights protocols. It would be very much in order if the EU were to do a deal, not only with Israel but with the West Bank and Gaza, the Palestinian territories, to ensure all those areas would be included in external trade agreements. It is an ideal opportunity to ensure that both sides maintain a proper neighbourly relationship in a manner that is acceptable to the rest of the world. This is a chance for us to ensure that, arising from this wonderful opportunity of trading with the EU at a preferential level, such trade would continue as long as certain criteria were being met by both sides. If any country trades with another, even one with a comparative or an absolute advantage, over time both countries' levels of income will rise. Everybody benefits from trade. We are giving Israel a wonderful opportunity and I suggest it should be extended to Gaza and the West Bank and used to make sure both sides comply with proper neighbourhood country relations.