Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

Senators Bradford, O'Keeffe and Mullins spoke about the decade of commemorations and inquired whether the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, will come to the House. We will certainly try to arrange this.

Senators Bradford and Ó Clochartaigh called for a debate on Northern Ireland.

Senator Mullen spoke about the petition for one third of the Dáil and half of the Seanad to call for a referendum. This matter was raised by Senator Daly last week and it is a matter for the Senators if they wished to proceed in this way.

With regard to the matter raised by Senators Moloney and Harte, I am not aware of the article in the newspaper on a person living in Donegal. My experience of Donegal is that it is a wonderful county. People who speak about the excesses of those living on social welfare should try to live on the basic social welfare rate themselves for a few weeks and see how they fare.