Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Leader for outlining the business. I assume the Finance (No. 3) Bill will be taken by the Minister or the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes. Will the Leader indicate who will come in to take it? Yesterday, I called on the House to support the call of the Palestinian Authority to support it in its quest to have the United Nations formally recognise a Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders. A motion has been tabled and I will ask our Whip to bring it to all groupings to establish if we can get agreement on it. The motion is that Seanad Éireann calls on the Irish Government to formally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly meeting in September 2011 and that such a state would be based on Israel's pre 1967 Borders and mutually agreed land swaps. I hope we will get agreement on the motion. That is our proposal on how the motion reads but we are open to some amendments to it. Our Whip will discuss the matter with the other Whips.

It is a matter of great concern that yesterday, Moody's, one of the supposed experts in the financial field, downgraded Irish debt to junk status. I raise this because more than two years ago in the Dáil I and other colleagues raised the issue of the power and influence of these ratings agencies.