David Norris (Independent)

On the economic area, I am a prophet crying in the wilderness. Why did the people meeting in Davos not take up the situation of Standard & Poor's and Fitch, which dishonestly rated products, were involved in this whole bundling system, helped to walk us into this position and at whose beck and call we are still because they continue to rate people? The Davos world economic forum should have taken the opportunity to get rid of Standard & Poor's and Fitch and set up an internationally established independent ratings system, but they did not have the courage to take them on.

I support what Senator Fitzgerald said about the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation. I was there this morning and it springs from the tragic situation Jonathan Irwin found himself in, but he responded in a very positive way. It was demonstrated by Professor Normand and Dr. Revill from Trinity College that the cost to a family, even if a child is in hospital, is €50,000 and €25 million could be saved by implementing a further programme of the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation.

I want to raise a matter that I believe to be of great significance in terms of the smart economy. We are always talking about that, yet a proposal appears to be emanating from central sources to disconnect the universities from access to electronic journals. In terms of the sciences, there have already been 4 million hits on this service. In terms of the social sciences, it is 4.5 million, to give a total of 8.5 million hits. This is the lifeblood of research and intellectual inquiry and senior people in the university have suggested to me that this is a lunacy and the equivalent of book burning. I ask the Leader to pass on this strong concern of people on all sides of this House to the Minister of Education and Science. In a situation where the universities are part of the knowledge-based society, they must continue to have uninterrupted access to electronic journals.