Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senators Cummins, O'Toole, Alex White, Boyle, McFadden, Ross, Coghlan, MacSharry, Bacik, Callely, Donohoe, John Paul Phelan, Regan and Buttimer all expressed views on the appointment of personnel in the banks. No decision has been made yet. I agree with many colleagues on the banks making money available and on the banks and the Government getting together to ensure the flow of credit starts. The biggest concern of most of us in the House is that credit will be made available, especially for small and medium sized enterprises which employ more than 800,000, because of the NAMA legislation on which we worked so long and hard last week. The way everyone who contributed last week conducted their affairs was a credit to them as was the standard of debate.

Senators McFadden and Leyden raised the fact medical card applications for the over 70s are dealt with in Dublin. It was a retrograde step to centralise everything in the capital. We all know of the great service provided in the old health board areas by people who were fully committed. The HSE has much to answer for and I will endeavour to get the Minister to come to the House to address the serious concern of every Senator in regard to the poor service provided which was outlined in the examples cited by Senators McFadden and Leyden.

Senator Cummins, O'Toole, Alex White and Boyle expressed views on the publication of photographs of the union leaders' houses in a Sunday newspaper. This was a serious departure for a Sunday newspaper. We will pass the Senators' strong views to the Minister.

This is legislation week and there are five Bills before the House, namely, the Labour Services (Amendment) Bill 2009, the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009, the Foreshore and Dumping at Sea Bill 2009, the Companies (Miscellaneous) Bill 2009 and the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009. A considerable amount of legislation is before the House for our consideration this week. Unfortunately, I will not be able to arrange statements on anything because legislation must be given priority. As I informed the House last week, on Tuesday, 1 December we will have an all-day open-ended debate on the budget and the financial state of affairs so colleagues may make their views known to the Minister to help the Government with the challenging budget on 9 December.

Senator MacSharry raised cross-Border shopping and reducing VAT. He paid tribute to retailers in the north west and the value for money they are offering to help their businesses survive. All these issues can be raised in the pre-budget debate on 1 December.

Senators O'Toole, Alex White, Boyle, Ormonde, Healy Eames and John Paul Phelan referred to education. Some colleagues congratulated the Minister for Education and Science and the Taoiseach on yesterday's announcement on making laptops available to schools. I join with them in that regard and welcome the investment being made in this area in education.

I agree with some colleagues that broadband signalling is not strong enough in some rural areas and, in some cases, is not available at all. I understand 80% of the population will be able to receive a broadband signal by the end of this year. It is a huge challenge facing the most rural areas.