Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I appreciate Senator O'Brien's comments on the Leader's comments yesterday on the reordering of business. The Leader was very gracious in accepting responsibility for the shortened debate on the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. Neither I nor any of the other leaders who saw a draft of the timetable believed two hours would be too little for Committee Stage of the Bill. I certainly did not believe debate on the amendments involved would take more than two hours. We will certainly be more careful in future. There was no intention to cut short the debate. I was involved in it and did not want to cut it short either.

Senator O'Brien referred to mortgage holders. I share his concern over the announcement that the European Central Bank is to raise interest rates. This is of major concern to all of us. I remind the Senator that the Labour group hosted a Private Members' debate some weeks ago on aids and supports for distressed mortgage holders. The Minister present stated he would consider some of the very constructive proposals made by my colleague, Senator Hayden, and others about reliefs offered in other countries to mortgage holders in distress.

I call for a debate on the renewed allegations about News of the World. I stated yesterday Irish readers should be boycotting News of the World. Given the recent reports and the escalation in their gravity, it is important that Irish readers vote with their feet this Sunday. The Irish Independent reports today that there may be two Irish victims of phone hacking by News of the World. There may be others. The Data Protection Commissioner was quite robust yesterday in suggesting what occurred would not happen here. Today there is much more concern that it is happening or has happened here. We have all learned in the past 24 hours how easy it is for unscrupulous journalists to engage in telephone hacking. The political scandal has escalated in Britain in the past 24 hours and it seems likely a major inquiry will be launched. This is especially significant because politicians in both Ireland and Britain have long been fearful of the power of News International and Rupert Murdoch. To see advertisers withdrawing advertisements from News of the World in disgust shows us that it is time we spoke up about this. Senators Gilroy and Conway, I and others did so yesterday and we should continue to do so. We should urge readers to show their disgust. It would be worth having a debate on this in the House.

I called yesterday for a debate on the contribution of religious orders to the redress Bill. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, pointed out that the religious orders are falling well short of paying a 50% share of the enormous bill of €1.36 billion payable on foot of the redress scheme. The Irish Examiner has had a very comprehensive series of reports on the amount of money and properties available to religious orders. It points out today that only seven of 200 schools owned by religious orders worth over €1 million each have been offered thus far to make up the shortfall. The Minister is correct that more properties of this kind could well be offered to make up the clear shortfall.