Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent)

I second the comments made by Senator van Turnhout regarding children's allowance and the advertisement in Centra today. However, I would go one step further. Should we have a debate on banning the advertisement of alcohol altogether? In the past two weeks, the Seanad Public Consultation Committee discussed cancer and heard that alcohol was the problem. The death of children in care report also said alcohol was the problem. I like alcohol but we need to be careful of it in our beautiful culture.

I refer to last weekend's The Sunday Times article on sick certificates. To my utter amazement, the journalist who wrote that report went around Dublin and told doctors she wanted to go to a wedding on a Friday. I think seven out of nine doctors gave her a sick certificate. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, is considering making changes to the current system by transferring more of the cost in the area of sick payments to the employer from the State. We need to invite the Minister for Health to the House at the earliest opportunity to discuss the practice and guidelines around doctors issuing sick certificates.

This was far from news to me and many employers because it is incredibly easy to get a sick certificate. There are some wonderful doctors but there are many who just hand out sick certificates to anyone who wants one. We want to get Ireland working again and ask employers to employ more people, so we need to be careful about the balance here. Will the Leader please invite the Minister for Health to the House and let us have a debate on this issue?