Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

In light of the continuing bad news about suicide I welcome in advance the working group on bullying set up by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, which I understand will report this afternoon. We have had debates on bullying already and I am sure the Minister would be pleased to come to the House after that working group has reported to allow us discuss its findings, the bigger picture in terms of bullying and specifically how it relates to suicide.

I ask the Leader if we could organise a group of Senators to meet Fiona Doyle, the woman who was raped by her father, as a gesture of support from the Seanad. I ask the Leader to consider the issue and how that might be done.

Yesterday I called for the Minister for Health to come to the House to tell us why appointments had not been made to the board of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. I continue to ask that he come to the House. Even though the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has done all it can in respect of the presence of horse DNA in beef burgers, the time has come for the companies to say what has happened. In the absence of their comment and information and explanation, I call on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to come to the House and update us on what is happening as there is more uncertainty now than a week ago.