Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

There he is - God speaking to God.

Senator Bacik requested a debate on the National Archives on which I have no difficulty.

Senator MacSharry called for a debate on developments in banking in Ireland and welcomed the announcement by the Bank of Ireland yesterday. We will have statements later this evening on banking. All spokespersons and other Members should avail of the opportunity to ascertain and tease out the up to date position on all the different things happening in the banking area.

Senator Geraldine Feeney called for a debate on the abuse of children in the HSE's care. It is a timely call for such a debate. We have had many debates on this issue in the Seanad and I have no difficulty in allowing time for such a debate.

I will give priority to Senator Feeney's second call for a debate on standards in the media, the press council and the decency, or, should I say, the lack of decency of standards in the media. I will give this request priority for a debate in the forthcoming weeks. I will allow the longest possible time because the balance in the media has very much shifted to a dictatorship. We used to have a newspaper one time that reported the truth of the news and we had decent reporters, as pol corrs, in this House at that time. One knew when one read their articles that they were factual and true. Every night we can see on a certain television channel at 11 p.m. a one-sided view on issues. One would swear there was no one on the Government side most of the time. If one looks back and checks who the people on this show represented at election time-----