John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

A Heathrow slot costs many millions of euro for any airline. It is a very valuable asset and each airline guards it very carefully. With that in mind, I am very conscious that we have a unique slot in the diary of the US President, which is on St. Patrick's Day. It is a slot we hold in many cities with Irish connections, be they in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. This is almost unique. I call for a debate in this House so that there is an objective and reasonable response to members of the Executive, which is the Cabinet, going to different countries to promote Ireland. No matter who is in the Cabinet, it is always good for Irish business to have Irish Ministers going abroad on St. Patrick's Day. I request the Leader to have a debate on that issue, because it seems to be a question in this House.

I also suggest a debate on the economy. It appears that the American economy is picking up. There was a 0.4% decrease in unemployment in December 2010. The business mood, the stock market and the price of commodities are all on the up and up. Now that the Japanese have agreed to purchase Irish bonds, we have an opportunity to go back to many other countries that might buy Irish bonds and tell them that we have a guaranteed market for our bonds, but that we will sell them to these countries at a lower rate, as we did previously and as the NTMA did previously. Instead of paying 5%, we could pay 4% for our bonds. It is time for us to have a debate on the economy, which appears to be on the up and up. We are like a cork on the ocean, and the ocean seems to be getting calmer.