Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

-----that can occur in any party. As has been outlined, particularly by Senator Paul Coghlan, budgets are based on growth, confidence and investment. This may be the reason that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, made his statement today.

I am informed that every household will have a copy of the treaty by this time next week without indicating a "Yes" or "No" vote. This is possible because the treaty is only 11 pages long. I agree with Senator Darragh O'Brien that the public should be fully informed on the matter. The parties will do their own work on convincing people to vote "Yes" or "No".

I welcome Senator Bacik's comments on the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. I support the call she and Senator O'Keeffe made for a debate on child care. We had a good debate on that issue in the context of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012.

The case of the 16 year old girl who failed to get access to a school was mentioned by Senators Bacik, Norris, Hayden, Mullen, Moran, O'Keeffe, Conway and Healy Eames. It was a dreadful situation. The Minister for Education and Skills will come to the House at the conclusion of the Order of Business to discuss the report on pluralism in schools. Perhaps the subject could be raised with the Minister in the context of that debate. I agree with Senator Conway that what happened represented an abuse of ethos.

Senators Mac Conghail and Bradford called for a debate on the constitutional convention. I will try to arrange time for such a debate. In regard to Senator Norris's comments about committee meetings being held at the same time as the Order of Business, I agree it is important that the latter should take primacy. I will discuss the question of reorganising committee schedules with the Chief Whip and I hope we will see progress in that regard. If necessary, we will bring forward Senator Norris's motion to copperfasten that at a later stage.