Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last weekend, newspapers carried an article on charity shops that were having difficulty with marauding gangs stealing clothes from charity clothes banks. To address this spiralling disease, representatives of the shops called for sections of the Charities Act to be implemented and for new legislation to be introduced. Any Senator who saw the recent "Prime Time" programme could not have been anything but astonished at the scale of the thefts. People are being hurt, as the money collected by charity shops from the sale of used clothes and other products goes towards helping the most vulnerable in society. It is time that the thugs were taken out of the game. The best way to do so is by introducing and enforcing legislation. I would be grateful if the Leader passed on my comments. Perhaps he will respond.

I wish to bring to the Leader's attention a bizarre situation that developed in the national media yesterday. It was like a feeding frenzy. I believed that April fool's day had passed, but it appears to have an anniversary. Starting yesterday morning on national radio and in the national printed media and continuing until the news at 9 p.m. and "Prime Time", a subject with which Senators are familiar was featured, that of Irish soldiers who fought for the Allies in the Second World War. This subject was presented as a new story that had suddenly appeared, aided and abetted by the Minister. I do not blame him if a microphone and camera are put in front of him but, as all Senators know, the legislation was a Seanad Bill. It was introduced and extensively debated in this Chamber - as the Leader would testify, it was not an in-and-out Bill - last February.