Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

There is nothing more important in the world, including the economy, than the protection of our children. I support calls from other Senators to have a series of debates on the protection of our children. I walked through places such as Letterfrack, which is one of the most beautiful parts of this country and the world, and saw the graveyard and experienced the feeling there. It is an extraordinarily powerful place. I ask the Leader to consider having a debate off-site in a place such as Letterfrack to commemorate the victims of the abuses which took place in the past. We need to take this matter very seriously and send out a message that our society has moved on and is taking the matter seriously.

I wish to refer to Senator Buttimer's comments about sitting on our hands and so on regarding jobs. That is not the case. Senator Coffey referred to laboratory services. I agree with him; there is great potential in laboratory services in Ireland and we need to have a debate on the matter. Job creation is very important and in areas such as laboratory services we could examine-----