Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I thank Senators Alex White and O'Toole for their kind words. Although I have made a small physical move forward and to the right, of course, I stay politically exactly where I was before, which is firmly on the left. I have the privilege of having been elected by the graduates of Dublin University to represent them in the Seanad and I will continue to work hard to do so.

I ask the Leader for a debate on NAMA. While I know we will debate the economy this evening, there is an enormous and growing public anger about the extent of the bailout to bankers that NAMA represents. Anyone who saw Fintan O'Toole on television on Monday night will have seen him memorably describe Anglo Irish Bank as a zombie bank. Many people are beginning to realise that NAMA will represent us breathing life with taxpayers' money into a zombie bank that does not deserve to be resuscitated. There will be immense anger when the scale of the money being put into Anglo Irish Bank, in particular, is realised. We need to debate the matter in the House.

In response to Senator Leyden's comments about the Lisbon treaty, many of us would sympathise with him about the fact that UKIP is advocating a "No" vote and it is yet another reason to vote "Yes". Of course there is a very positive reason to vote for the treaty apart from that which is that it will incorporate for the first time the Charter of Fundamental Rights into EU primary law. I, for one, am passionate about supporting the treaty for that reason alone. I urge colleagues on both sides of the House who are supportive of the treaty to look at the website of the charter group in which I am involved. It is a group of trade unionists and activists from the left who are urging a "Yes" vote because of the importance we attach to this charter, which will provide citizens here with another parallel system of human rights protections to add to our own Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. That is a significant positive reason to ask people to vote "Yes". On doorsteps that has been received very positively when I have been canvassing.