Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Otherwise, it seems as if some Members refer to it and others do not. I would appreciate it. I am aware of the genuine feelings of Members on it but I just want to make that point.

The amendment to the Order of Business which has been put forward by the Leader of the Opposition is something that the Leader should take seriously, and not just on the basis of the issue in question. I have been saying in the House over recent months that we need in the community clarity of objectives and certainties on which we can depend. If we know what it is we are trying to achieve, we can all find a way to do that. It is not necessary for the Opposition to agree cravenly with the Government's views on it but, as has been stated on both sides of the House, there is no point in the Government side asking Labour, Fine Gael, the Independents and others to outline their views if the Government does not create the opportunity to do it. This is the opportunity to do it. We all are clear on the overall objective of cuts and perhaps we can be clear on job savings as well. Let us now look at where our priorities should be within each section.

The importance of this is not merely for the issues of clarity and certainties which I mentioned, but also in order that we can assess what is working. On the question of old age pensions, for example, pensions have saved people from poverty and, to that extent, it works very well and any movement towards reducing or impacting in any way on pensions should be done in that context of what we want as a society, and it is similar with education. This is a positive, progressive and helpful proposal by Senator Fitzgerald. I urge the Leader to take it on board in order that we can deal with these and with every sector in the same way, not in any great discussion about what the Government has done for the past ten years but simply to state the objective, what we are trying to achieve in this Department, the budget in the Department for next year and how the Government proposes to deal with it. It could be helpful to the Government as well as to the rest of us.

I will finish up on an issue which I have raised in the House on three or four occasions and which Members on both sides and in all parties of the House have raised, namely the question of the 116000 number for missing children. The Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has been dealing with this over three different meetings. We still do not know Government policy on this. We were told today that the Garda does not have any strong view that we need such a number. We are being told by the Department of Health and Children that there is a better use of resources than to put it into a missing child helpline. If that is the case, we have been misled in this House. We were under the impression the Government was in favour of the establishment of that number but that at this stage it was not able to put it in place for want of resources or otherwise. We are also aware that the ISPCC and One Child International have offered to operate this number for free if the Government supports them in bringing to every house in Ireland the outline of how to recognise child abuse and to guard against it.