Joe O'Toole (Independent)

-----until such time as we make up the amount that will be needed. I know they are not marketable at the moment. I do not want them sold, disposed of or liquidated, I want them transferred into our ownership to allow a 50-50 share of responsibility and cost all the way through. No fair-minded person could object to that.

I do not know how many people are aware that we have two ambassadors in the city of Rome, one for Italy and the other for the Vatican state. I do not know what our trade with the Vatican state is, but I suspect it is considerably less than it is with other countries. This week we decided to close down our consulate office in our nearest trading neighbour in Wales. It would make far more sense to open an office in Wales and close the second unnecessary Rome embassy in the Vatican state. I raise this matter assuredly and informatively because the Ryan report makes it clear that the Vatican was used as a place for orders to lodge files that they do not want to make available to the Government. It is a place in which elderly paedophiles and child abusers have been finding sanctuary away from this country. Do we have an extradition treaty with the Vatican state? Should we maintain an embassy in the Vatican state? The Vatican state is fast becoming, as we see from our perspective, a flag of convenience for child abusers and paedophiles.