Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

I agree, for once, with Senator Leyden in that it is not all fun being in Government. This is because of the state in which the country was left by his party some months ago. He is scare-mongering as usual in regard to the proposed septic tank charge, as reported in the newspapers this morning. No legislation has been introduced on this yet. Senator Leyden forgot to mention that whatever measure is introduced will be to prevent a fine for nonconformance being imposed by the European Commission. This issue was not addressed by the previous Administration.

Earlier in the week, I raised the issue of HSE transport in the west for cancer and dialysis patients. This was raised by Senator O'Brien this morning. At a meeting of the HSE forum in Galway on Tuesday, the HSE denied it is to withdraw transport services from those patients. If there is confusion about this, I ask the Leader to clarify with the Minister for Health whether the HSE has rowed back on what was outlined at the public meeting in Galway.

Some fine contributions were made in the House over the past week or so on Seanad reform. It worries me that the pace of reform may be very slow. Some weeks ago Senator Quinn asked in the House for a very minor administrative change whereby the Order Paper we receive every morning would not be received in a sealed brown envelope. If there were no envelopes and each Member's address were printed on the Order Paper, we would make the saving requested by Senator Quinn.

We are all concerned about the deteriorating circumstances in Northern Ireland.