Rónán Mullen (Independent)

We have heard some very interesting points from Senators O'Toole, Harris and Regan. We should have a debate about the whole issue of savings. I hear, too, about many people who have accumulated large amounts of personal debt on credit cards and suchlike. I presume we are not talking about the same people. However, it is important that we have an informed debate in this House about the dynamics of all that in order to use the House as a place where the consciousness of the public is raised about the need to share resources and get spending - wherever people have the resources to spend - so we can experience the growth for which we long.

Although we face tough times it remains the case that we must apply rules fairly. This morning the Joint Committee on Social Protection had a debate about the application - I should say misapplication - of the habitual resident condition. In this context we are talking about the returning Irish who experience bad service, misinformation and fobbing off, particularly at local level where they are dealing with community welfare officers. This leads to the misapplication of the condition to their disadvantage. People are being told that because they have not lived in the country for the past two years they cannot be considered habitually resident which is blatantly false. The supplementary welfare allowance, which is supposed to be the safety net payment, is being got wrong leading to homelessness. These are returned emigrants who are being left homeless because of the misapplication of the condition. The Department has now made it more difficult to get statistics on this because it no longer counts the local refusals. I would like the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Ó Cuív, to come to the House and explain what is being done in regard to the training, guidelines and the monitoring of people who are obliged to apply this condition, what is being done about the collection of data and whether it is possible to remove section 246 of the 2005 Act, that is, the very unhelpful two-year rule which seems to be causing more confusion than anything else.

I asked last week whether consideration could be given to the issue of animal welfare because the business of making Ireland a better country must continue, even while we grapple with our economic problems. It is not acceptable that it is not an offence to possess or train an animal for fighting, for example. It is not even an offence to spectate at an event at which animals are fighting. We need legislation along the lines of that in place in Scotland. I ask the Leader what he can tell me, either today or in the next couple of days, about the proposed animal health and welfare Bill. When will it be before the House? Will it be part of the good news on future legislation?