David Norris (Independent)

I commend the Members of the House who took part in the debate on RTE this morning, to which I listened with great interest. One thing that was missing, and we should direct our attention to filling this gap, is the list of the achievements the Seanad, with the greatest difficulty and given all the constraints it has suffered under, has managed to accomplish over many years. I think of Senator Quinn's important Bill on the construction industry, for example, as well as the role this House played in the Civil Partnership Bill. There is a series of things we have done that have not been noticed, including amendments to the NAMA legislation which made it accountable to the Oireachtas for the first time, although that took place at 2.30 a.m. and was never covered.

We ought to be able to present to the public what we have done. We should stand on our record. We should admit our limitations but we should say that while those limitations should also be looked at, we have had very significant achievements within them. Among these achievements have been considerable debates on the economy. I ask for a series of debates on this issue. For example, I note with great interest today that the man who founded the Davos meeting has indicated that capitalism in its present form is not working. That is a very significant point, coming from that source, and is something we should look at.

I understand there is the possibility of an oil and gas find at Dalkey and some of the local residents have raised objections to it on environmental grounds. They may well have a case, but would it not be-----