Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I have a request for about 30 debates on various subjects already on the first day of this Seanad. There would be no problem facilitating such debates but getting Ministers in here to deal with every one of them may be a problem. There is always the possibility that we could have debates in this House without Ministers being present. Some people may feel it would be pointless to have debates without Ministers present but it is an option open to us if we cannot get Ministers from time to time and it is something to which I will also have to give consideration.

I am mindful I have business ordered for 4 p.m. The Leader of the Opposition, Senator Darragh O'Brien, requested a debate on the programme for Government, on the report of the review group on State assets and on the fair deal scheme and I hope we will have an opportunity to discuss those soon.

Likewise, the deputy leader, Senator Bacik, spoke about the issue of white collar crime. It is a matter the Minister takes very seriously and he expects legislation will be introduced soon.

Senators Mullen, Norris, Hayden, Conway and others spoke of the hidden cost of the cutbacks and the requirement to prioritise the needs of families such as those we witnessed on the "Prime Time" programme recently. I am sure we will be in a position to arrange for the Minister for Health to come into the House. He has been asked by Members to come to the House to debate nine health items. As to whether those items can be clustered or broken into different areas for consideration, we will try to arrange for the Minister to come to the House as much as possible to deal with the matters raised by Members today.

I welcome the maiden contributions of several new Members who are present and I hope it will be the first of many contributions we will hear from the new Members.

I thank Senator Cullinane for his comments and assure him that I will certainly try to be fair in the allocation of time. It is not my intention to exclude any Member from making contributions in this House. I will do my best regarding the allocation of time, taking account of the number of groupings and the priority they will have. It is not my intention to exclude any Member from making contributions and having time to do so in the House.