Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Therefore, I support Senator Darragh O'Brien's call for the Minister to come to the House, although I appreciate it would be at short notice. It seems this debate has been superseded by the Presidential election debate which has taken prominence from it. The vast majority of the public do not know enough about it. People have not had time to consider it. This is an occasion for us to do something.

I was going to call on the Government to do something about the weather, but it must have done something about it today because there has been a big improvement. There is something it can do on the issue of daylight hours. We will lose an hour of daylight each evening from this weekend. I know I raise this matter on a regular basis, but it is in our own hands to do something about it. If we were to use Central European Time, we would enjoy an extra hour of daylight in the evening the whole year around. This would benefit tourism, industry, education, health and society as a whole. I am not suggesting we ask others in Europe to change anything such as the times or dates on which this is done, rather I am suggesting we use Central European Time. It is interesting that Britain is giving serious consideration to this issue and I think it is planning to follow us if we move first. We should, therefore, announce that it is our intention to move to Central European Time when I think we would find the British would follow us. Clearly, it would not be an advantage for us to do it on our own if it meant Belfast and Dublin were in different time zones. It is possible to do this and the case has been made for it. There is a very strong case being made in Britain which is moving in that direction. The first Bill is coming through and it has been accepted on Second Stage. We have to give serious consideration to the matter immediately. This weekend will see another step in the wrong direction. We should make sure it is the last time we make this change.