Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I support calls by Senator Harris for a debate on older people. I notice that debates on older people, children and so on are lined up. The forgotten group is always us middle-aged people with our middle-aged spread and various other things we have, which I shall not mention in the House.

I call for a debate on information technology, the sector with which I would be most associated. It is an important debate. The face of our society is changing strongly. Many people are now able to watch this debate on the Internet. They can pick up records of what is said here every day. People can get every word we say sent to their e-mail accounts directly after a Seanad debate. It is extraordinary how the face of the world is changing, let alone Ireland. Senators have requested a debate on Gaza today. Immediately after this discussion I can find out on my computer about things that are happening today on the ground in Gaza. I can communicate with people directly via the Internet. It is an extraordinarily changing world. We should have a series of debates on how this is affecting Irish life. Many children spend a large amount of time on computers. While it is great to have information, there are negative sides to the information technology sector. It is important for us to have a debate and I call on the Leader to arrange that as urgently as possible.