Ivana Bacik (Independent)

It certainly has. Climate change legislation is a key element of its programme for which it should be pushing. Senator Hannigan, others on this side of the House and I, who have been calling for this debate for so long, are doing the Green Party a great favour by pressing its senior partner in coalition on this matter. We want to see a change in the Order of Business to discuss the Bill. It is not deficient. If Senator Boyle believes it is, let him debate it in the Chamber. I ask also for a long overdue debate on prisons. On Friday the Minister for Justice and Law Reform published no fewer than five long-delayed reports on prisons from the Inspector of Prisons. One report, dated 13 August 2009, contained damning critiques of conditions in prisons, in particular in Mountjoy Prison. The Inspector of Prisons, Mr. Justice Michael Reilly, stated there was "inhuman and degrading" treatment going on in our prisons every day and night of the year, with the horrible and brutal practice of slopping out continuing, among other things. We need to have a debate now that we have the five reports and the necessary information and Senator Cummins and I have called for one.