Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I join my colleagues in welcoming Senator Paschal Mooney to the House and wish him all the best for the future. I hope he enjoys his time here and I am sure he will make a very positive contribution to the House, as he has done in the past.

I also express my condolences to the people of Haiti for the awful catastrophe that occurred there over Christmas. At times such as this one sees people give of their best and I pay tribute to members of the international community who have given of their time in going there and helping out in the relief effort, including people from Ireland. I was speaking to a family earlier, one of whose members is working in Haiti, trying to save lives and help people there to recover from the disaster.

All our local authorities did as much as they could in the recent cold spell, but they suffer from a lack of funding. In County Meath, for example, the county council is under serious pressure to try to make current budgets last. When extraordinary events like the recent cold spell occur - it only happens once every 30 years or so - local authorities will not be prepared to cope if they do not have money in the bank. In east Meath, we saw tens of thousands of people without access to the road network because gritting could not take place. There were insufficient funds and salt supplies, so we need to learn from that. Adequate funding is required from central Government because local government cannot raise such funds through rates. The Leader should arrange a debate so Senators from all over the country can share their experiences. Perhaps we could then learn about what went well and where mistakes were made. When the next emergency arises we will then be better prepared to help people go about their business.