David Norris (Independent)

We should invite those involved in Shell to come on board. We should tell them that the country is in dire straits, that their company is extracting the country's resources which it obtained for nothing and that they have trampled all over the people of the west. I made similar comments at a conference in Athlone, at which representatives from Shell were present. They came to see me very quickly, but I did not withdraw one word of what I had said. I informed them that I would meet them for lunch in Leinster House in order that we might discuss the position. By coincidence, on the train to Athlone I became involved in a discussion with a group of four men, a father and son and two others, who worked in the Corrib field. One of them informed me that there was even more gas to be found. Let us use this resource. Why put people through misery if we can obtain money for this gas?

The Minister of State is a decent and humane man and I am sure feels the same as I do about the most disgusting imposition on people I have ever witnessed, namely, the 50 cent charge on prescriptions. When this new charge was announced, the terminally ill and the homeless were targeted. I hope the Minister of State will use his good offices to try to have this charge withdrawn.

Yesterday I visited a sheltered workshop in Blanchardstown. The people employed there produce needlework etc. They are absolutely fantastic. One woman approached me and said I should not let the Government take their teachers or their funding away. She also informed me that they would not stand for this and stamped her foot. I thought she was a great girl. We must find the money to support people such as those to whom I refer. We must not allow multinational corporations to raid the cupboard completely.

I wish to highlight a couple of positive developments. Like Senator John McCain during the US presidential election, I recently had a "Joe the plumber" moment. I may have related this story on a previous occasion in the House, but I do not recall whether that is the case. Some months ago, following a Seanad sitting, I flew to Cork and travelled to Clonakilty to meet some transition year students and view their projects. The one which gave me hope was the brainchild of a group of 15 or 16 year olds. The rich effluent which flows from our farmlands creates a bloom of sea lettuce which is a form of seaweed and which, when washed ashore, creates a stink and acts as a disincentive to tourism. The girls in question collected samples, analysed them chemically and discovered that it was possible to compress this bloom and produce briquettes which have the same heat equivalent as turf and which burn for twice as long. Such ingenuity must be encouraged.

In recent days I spoke at the launch in Malahide Castle of a wonderful invention, the brainchild of a woman, Ms Sheila Byrne, whose daughter is dyslexic. When she was helping her daughter to read, she noticed that the girl's eye was moving erratically between lines of text. In exasperation, she cut a piece of cardboard from a Corn Flakes packet, removed a strip from it and placed the device over the text. As a result, her daughter was only obliged to focus on one line at a time. This made matters much easier and the girl made great progress. Ms Byrne has developed the product - Readassist - which she designed in co-operation with the Fingal Enterprise Board and Spear Technology, a commercial company, and is now being marketed. It is a fantastic product and involves an idea as simple as that which led to the development of the safety pin. It will have not only an Irish but also a worldwide application. The product is beginning to be manufactured here and will be exported.

I have provided but a glimpse of the ideas, ingenuity and originality still prevalent in the country. I will be repeating to the people from Shell, with whom I am meeting tomorrow, what I have said today. I appeal to the Minister of State to come up with some radical solutions. The current Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, tore up the agreement his country had with Shell and we should do the same. If Shell gets a sniff of what else might be brought ashore from the waters off the west coast, it will not turn down our demand to renegotiate in respect of the natural resources which belong to the people.