Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Kelly spoke on the reform of the Seanad and I understand another Bill will be published soon in this regard and hopefully next month Members will have an opportunity of discussing it in the House. I can tell the Senator that the Government has a 15% say in the Bank of Ireland. As Senator Paul Coghlan mentioned, Bank of Ireland has paid back quite a considerable amount of the capital that was put into it. I would be extremely doubtful as to whether the State gets back all its money from the AIB and the other banks. I have answered the two questions that no one else answered and I hope they are proper answers for the Senator.

Senator Mary Ann O'Brien referred to the Action Plan for Jobs and welcomed the targeting of 20,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector in particular. She called for a debate and I certainly will arrange to have either the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, or the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, come in soon to debate that issue. Again, I believe this has been a good week for the Seanad. I remind Members of the debate held in this House on the question of jobs and the Action Plan for Jobs. It lasted for more than three hours without any Minister present, during which time Members came up with suggestions in respect of job creation. Many laudable suggestions were made, which have been taken on by the Government. Again, I believe this House is undervalued in such cases. Similarly, Senator Quinn again raised the issue of giving people access to some of their moneys from their additional voluntary contributions, AVCs. The suggestion was initially mooted in this House by the Senator and it was taken on by the Government. Consequently, many laudable suggestions have emanated from this House and this also should be remembered.

Senator Noone raised the position of creative therapists in the mental health sphere and I will arrange for the sought-for debate on adult mental health in particular. The Senator also welcomed the announcement on the missing children's hotline. Senator Mooney also welcomed the after-school child care places that were announced recently. I already have addressed the issue raised with regard to the sponsorship of sport. Finally, Senator Moloney spoke on the subject of people with narcolepsy who developed it on foot of receiving the swine flu vaccine and raised the possibility of having a debate with the Minister for Health, as well as calling for more question and answer sessions. Such questions and answer sessions were developed but a lot of people were not prepared to accept them. While I thought it was a very good development to have Members engaging in question and answer sessions with Ministers, I encountered criticism to the effect that Members were not allowed to speak on the various matters and sought more time to speak on them, rather than asking questions. I will try to come to a happy medium in this regard but I acknowledge one can never get it 100% right.