Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

A total of 95% of placement is an incredibly high success rate. We must continue to give hope to the young men and women who have no job. They must be given an opportunity to upskill, train and have some reason to get out of bed every day. Hope is crucially important at this difficult time.

Senator Quinn asked me to raise with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, the container scanning system due to be put in place which will affect exports from here and all imports into the United States of America by 2012. This is an important issue and I have no difficulty in arranging time for this debate in the next session.

Senator Donohoe spoke about capital for the banks. The Finance Bill will be debated here in the first two weeks in February and issues not addressed in the budget can be discussed in that debate. I can inform the House that we will have a special debate before the Finance Bill on issues which Senators are of the opinion should be included in the Bill.

Senators Mullen, Callely and Mary White called for a debate on stroke care, the future of the Health Service Executive and the need for proper equipment in our hospitals, which was highlighted earlier. There are 1 million people over the age of 60 on the island of Ireland, as Senator White correctly pointed out to the House. This is a debate that all colleagues will want to contribute to, particularly Senator White's proposal and the outlining of the high percentages regarding free breast cancer screening. That is an alarming statistic and this House should fight hard to ensure the age limit should not be 64 but increased, as a right. I agree with the Senator on that and we will have a debate on this issue in the early part of the next session.

Senator Callely spoke about the Department of Health and Children and the issues he has highlighted to the House. They can also be discussed in that debate.

Senators McFadden, Buttimer and Butler raised the issue of mortgage relief that was extended in the budget. Senator Butler has a report from the EBS which I believe most colleagues will be very interested to see implemented. The Senator outlined the details to the House and said he would put a copy of this report in every colleague's pigeon hole later today. I welcome his initiative and his hard work in this area. We have no difficulty in putting aside time for that debate.

Senator Bacik spoke about third level funding. We can certainly discuss that issue, with the Minister present, during the statements on the budget this afternoon.