Ivana Bacik (Independent)

Yesterday, we had a useful session in the House when we discussed the finance statements with the Minister for Finance. Today's newspaper headlines show some more room for cautious positivity with the tax take for the first half of the year €500 million ahead of target. The Minister fairly set out the position yesterday and spoke, in particular, about the recent positive announcement on the decoupling of bank and sovereign debts, which we all welcome. It would be useful to have him back in the autumn. Yesterday other Senators called for debates on finance in the lead up to the budget or even earlier in September or October. It would be good to hold a debate at that point on finance and on the outcome of the negotiations that are taking place at EU level about decoupling and breaking the vicious circle of state and bank debts. We all recognise that the talks taking place in Rome today between Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Monti of Italy are very important, particularly as the Finnish Government has expressed strong opposition to decoupling. We must watch that debate with great interest.

I also ask the Leader for a debate on the proposed merger of the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority. I have just come from a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality where we heard submissions from various interest groups on the heads of a Bill. The committee will publish a report on the heads of the Bill that the Minister for Justice and Equality has published. It would be useful for the Seanad to have a debate on the committee's report prior to the Bill being published and I hope that the legislation will commence in this House, as a lot of justice Bills are. It would be good to have a debate on the issues involved. There are some particular issues that groups like the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Rights Alliance have raised about the heads of the Bill. They raised issues that they would like to see addressed in the drafting of the Bill. We might usefully debate it in the Seanad early in the autumn.