Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

I join my colleagues throughout the party in arguing that we urgently need a debate on children. I refer to the two points that my colleague Senator Fitzgerald made on child care. We can discuss the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the Catholic church, but ultimately it is the children who suffer and are the victims. As Senator White said, it is obvious what is going to come out. I, too, shudder to think of that, but there is no point in hurling on the ditch and leaving it to fester for longer. We need to deal with it as soon as possible. It is wrong for the HSE to try to hide behind a legal curtain. I ask the Leader to intervene and get the Minister for Health and Children to instruct her Department to get on with it. She is well able to do that.

I also support Senator Fitzgerald's comments on the bilateral agreement. I agree with Senator Norris about the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews. He is a good, caring Minister of State but why in God's name did he only start negotiations in earnest on 25 March? Why did he not go to Vietnam, as Senator Cannon said? We need to put ourselves in the position of the families who, after five years of negotiation, are going to get their packs, information and deposits back from Vietnam and such places. That will be heartbreaking and soul destroying for people, not to mention the effect it will have on the extended families. Given that 1,000 families are waiting in this situation, it is incumbent on us to sort it out as soon as possible.