Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Senator Leyden referred to the union-sanctioned embargo affecting passport applications. I will speak to the Minister about this. We all agree fully that if people are in urgent need of a passport, they should be facilitated. No matter what dispute takes place, one should be allowed to return to work in the country in which one is fortunate enough to have a job. Those whose passports are out of date are certainly in a position of hardship and should be given special consideration.

Senators Coghlan, Boyle and Alex White called for a debate on waste and waste management. This debate is very timely and I have no difficulty in allowing time for it to take place.

I take on board Senator Keaveney's views. I wish well our new Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who is to begin her five-year term this week. She is a competent, capable person and has certainly proved herself down through the years. She will serve Ireland and the Commission well in her new role.

Senators Ross, Boyle, Regan and Mullen called for the Taoiseach to come to the House to discuss civil servants' pay. I have outlined the difficulties being experienced in this regard. I wonder at times whether Fine Gael and the Labour Party have parliamentary party meetings at all because the only such meetings ever discussed in the House are the Fianna Fáil ones. Some colleagues on the far side of the House had a family tradition of being on this side of the House but, because there was no room in the inn, they are on the far side of the House. That is understandable but, really and truly, everyone must be factual in their comments.