John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I join with the leader of Fine Gael in the House, Senator Fitzgerald, in opposing the Order of Business on the basis that no Private Members' time has been allotted this week. When Opposition Members raise issues the Leader frequently says they should be discussed in Private Members' time. In my seven years here I cannot remember a week when Private Members' time was not provided for. Given the fact that there are only three items on this week's schedule, I do not see why Private Members' time could not have been included.

As I asked in the last session, is it not possible that when the schedule is delivered by e-mail or otherwise to Members on Thursdays or Fridays, the times of debates could also be included? There was a time in the House when Senators did not have specific time slots to contribute and speaking time was not curtailed. In that context, it may have been more difficult to schedule the business of the House, but in my first five years as a Member of this House it was possible to indicate when debates would actually take place. I ask the Leader to examine doing that in future.

I also wish to mention NAMA briefly in passing, although I know we will be discussing that legislation at a later date. It is arguably the most important legislation the Houses of the Oireachtas will ever deal with. Senator Hanafin spoke about the Government borrowing from the Central Bank at 1.5% and lending at a higher rate. It is quite clear, however, that we will not be borrowing from the European Central Bank at 1.5% for much longer. In fact, interest rate could increase significantly over the next number of years. In all his calculations to do with NAMA, the Minister for Finance has refused to accept that that increase is inevitable, whenever it comes. It could be very substantial indeed, although it has not been sufficiently included in any of the Government's calculations so far.

I join with Senators Fitzgerald, Alex White and others who referred to the report of the Commission on Taxation. Every time a taxation issue was discussed in the previous session we were told to await the outcome of that report. Now, however, we are told by the Taoiseach that it is a long-term project, not a short or medium-term one. We should have a debate with the Minister for Finance, not one of the junior Ministers, in the House as soon possible.

I agree with previous speakers who referred to issues concerning rural areas. Senator O'Toole spoke about prices to suppliers and producers, and we should have a discussion on those.

For a long time, Senator Doherty has raised the removal of services to people in rural Ireland, such as the rural transport initiative. However, I disagree profoundly with Senator Doherty's views on the Lisbon treaty. In particular, he mentioned a line from the Wall Street Journal referring to the Government - which I dislike as much as he does - preying on fears to get the Irish people to vote "Yes".