Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

On behalf of the Green Party, like everyone else, I welcome the return of Senator Paschal Mooney to the House. As a fellow Connacht man, I am delighted we are beginning to redress the imbalance.

Like other Senators, I call for a debate on Haiti because it is very important. Our troubles with snow and floods pale into significance relative to what is going on there. I ask the Government passionately to give any assistance it can. It has been put to me by various people that our Defence Forces could look at helping out in that jurisdiction, if requested, in so far as this is possible.

I also support the call for a debate on media very strongly, given the way things are going in this country in relation to politics, since I believe the media are unhelpful at the moment in that regard. It would be quite something to have a live debate on RTE television and radio from the Seanad, so that we might get our points across unedited. Quite often, the difficulty with media is that we are talking about spin and the segmenting of the things we actually say. It would be important to get matters before the public, live and directly, rather than having debates edited all the time.

I would welcome a debate on head shops as being of importance, although I am not going to talk on this. I would very much welcome a debate on drinking water as well. I have two brief points to make in this regard. Under the present Government there has been unparalleled investment in the treatment of drinking water in Ireland, despite what people believe, and I very much welcome that. Drinking water is the basis of life and it is crucial that it is available for the people. I would stress, however, that water in flooded areas and in rivers cannot be confused with clean safe drinking water. It is not the same thing, despite that people continually ask why we cannot have enough water in our reservoirs, given that there is so much lying in puddles throughout the country. Water does not just jump into the reservoirs and enormous investment and work is needed to ensure it can be safely distributed. When people make such comparisons, they can be somewhat disingenuous.

I welcome that the banking inquiry is taking place, and that is crucial. The Green Party has been solidly behind that from day one and we are delighted that this banking inquiry will now go ahead.