Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I join others in calling on the Leader to ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, to come to the House to discuss today's report. Others have stated how important and urgent it is to have the debate and I imagine the Leader will do his best to facilitate it.

I call on the Leader to ensure that we keep the issue of the independence of our cultural institutions on our minds in the Seanad. I had the pleasure of meeting representatives from the National Gallery of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre and the National Library of Ireland in Sligo last week for Yeats day. Through their capacity to reach out to communities locally they showed the importance of their independence and how important they are in our lives when we reach out to them. Given that Senator Mac Conghail was so helpful and co-operative in the matter it is important that we keep the independence of these institutions to the fore of our debate.