Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

I join previous speakers in congratulating everybody involved in our successful sporting weekend, including the wonderful achievement of our Rugby World Cup heroes on Saturday morning.

I share the concerns expressed by colleagues regarding the reported Health Service Executive write-off. I am aware that many consultants are disputing the fact that they are the cause of the hospitals' ability to claim the moneys but we must find out what is the exact position. I ask the Leader to organise, if at all possible, a question and answer session with the Minister, Deputy Reilly, at the earliest opportunity because there are a number of issues we all want to discuss with him. We have seen from previous visits here by Ministers that the question and answer type format works particularly well and we should develop that further in this session.

I refer to another important event taking place, the National Ploughing Championships 2011, in Athy. Agriculture is one of the bright spots on our horizon and it is encouraging to see Teagasc issue a statement this morning to the effect that many additional places are being made available in agricultural colleges. It is encouraging to see so many young people interested in getting involved in agriculture and agri-business. If we are to dig ourselves out of this recession, agriculture will play a major part in the revival of our economy. Most farmers would admit that all sectors of agriculture are doing well at the moment and let us hope that we can continue to build on that. Having seen our Minister here in the Seanad some weeks ago we would have confidence that we have a good man driving agriculture forward into the future. I wish the ploughing championships well today and I wish our Minister well in the difficult and protracted negotiations he will have in the coming months.