Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I am relieved that the disgraceful suggestion that bonuses be paid to bank staff has not materialised. I would welcome a general debate on the banks. Considering the level of support we are affording them to keep going, it would be appropriate to ask whether salary levels throughout the banks are appropriate. While we have managed to limit the pay of top executives and ensure the non-payment of bonuses, are other salaries of banking staff still appropriate, given the level of support the banks are receiving? My information suggests most salaries remain as they were before the crisis.

If that is the case, given the level of support the State and the taxpayer are providing, clearly the levels of salaries throughout entire organisations need to be looked at without delay.

I join Senator Keaveney in calling for a debate on cocaine. Although there has been much mention in the media in recent times of the abuse of this drug we should focus on having such a debate, similar to the way alcohol abuse has been discussed. One calls to mind advertisements on television that have helped to reduce the level of drink driving throughout the country. Equally, there needs to be advertising on our airwaves and in our print media showing the direct links between drugs and death. People who still engage in snorting cocaine in the gin and tonic belts of Dublin and other cities without making a direct connection to murders in this city and other parts are deluding themselves. It is time that, as an Oireachtas, we promoted the highlighting of this issue in the stark terms required. This is not the recreational drug of the super elite but a drug that finances murder on a daily basis throughout the country and it is time we used our good offices to highlight that fact.