David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I thank Senators for their expressions of best wishes.

As the House will be aware, there are many bad news stories brought into this Chamber. However, there is a good news story as I am sure the Leader of House will agree, coming from Waterford, namely, that the tall ships event will take place tomorrow. It is being formally launched by the Taoiseach. It will be a spectacular event where, hopefully, up to 500,000 people will travel to Waterford city. This is not merely a Waterford city event, or even a regional event. This is a national and international event. Some 50 tall ships will come to Waterford. It was over 11 centuries ago that the Vikings came to Waterford. I am not sure about the reception that they got all of those centuries ago, but I know that the tall ships will get a fantastic reception from the people of Waterford. There are hundreds of volunteers who have been part of making this a success. I commend all of those volunteers, the management of Waterford City Council and all of the councillors who played a blinder in ensuring that Waterford put its best foot forward. It is a fantastic event.

It dovetails nicely with another good news story which came from Waterford last week, namely, the establishment of a Viking triangle of three museums now in the heart of Waterford city in the Mall which complements the Waterford Crystal facility. I note that each visiting captain who comes with the tall ships will be given a specially commissioned piece of Waterford crystal. It is fantastic for the country that Waterford Crystal is still alive and kicking and I am sure the Leader of the House will agree with that.

On a final point, my party has repeatedly called for a debate on the JLCs and for the Minister to come into the House to discuss his proposals. Senator Reilly raised this issue yesterday and there was no response. The Cabinet has discussed this issue. It has been deferred for a number of weeks. It is of fundamental importance to hundreds of thousands of working people in the State that we have an opportunity to discuss his proposals and the Duffy-Walsh report. I would appeal to the Leader of the House to ensure time is made available for this debate. Somebody spoke earlier about the amendment which is being tabled about this House being taken for granted. I do not want a situation where we learn that decisions which are made by the Cabinet on something so fundamentally important are announced at a press conference before we have had an opportunity to have any say or input into those proposals. I would ask the Leader of the House to devote time next week to that important issue.