Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

Senators Byrne and Cullinane have made reasonable proposals to have debates on banking and the implementation of the programme for Government. It is also reasonable for me to say that it is most unlikely that the Leader could produce the Minister for Finance or Taoiseach today. I ask the Leader to try to ensure that at the earliest possible stage - I believe Senator Paul Coghlan concurs - we should have a debate on banking. It would also be helpful to have debate on the progress of the Government to date at the earliest possible stage. If we want the House to be taken seriously and with some degree of relevance and respect, we cannot expect to produce Ministers out of a hat instantaneously. I appeal to the Senators who moved the amendments to await the Leader's reply. I hope he will be able to outline that those - admittedly urgent - debates will take place in the very near future. I concur with what Senator Paul Coghlan said about the banking crisis. It is deeply regrettable to hear of such substantial proposed job losses and every possible angle must be pursued. However, let us not be hypocritical in these Houses. In recent years we have called for a more efficient and effective banking system and presumably some degree of rationalisation is necessary, but 2,500 sounds draconian.

I agree with the general sentiments of Senator Norris on the presidential election campaign. We had a debate on media and media standards some weeks ago.

We should revisit the debate arising from yesterday's statement from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland on the Seán Gallagher matter. It is regrettable that the "Frontline" programme produced a distorted view of reality. One cannot replay a presidential election or any election once it is over. It is too little too late to apologise or say "sorry" to Seán Gallagher. However, we must learn from the way in which the presidential election was conducted from a media perspective. A revisiting of the role of the media in politics and the reporting and presentation of politics could be useful in the long run.