Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to relate to the House how much the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, appreciated the interventions of this House on the examinations in response to a matter Senator Clune raised on the Adjournment. It is fair to say that he is firmly on the side of students but he will convey the deliberations of this House to the review of what went wrong with the leaving certificate.

I concur with the sympathy expressed by Members to the Bolger family on the tragedy off the coast of Tramore.

Recently, stalwarts on the Government side, including Senator Brennan, and Senator Mooney on this side, have sought the promotion and development of tourism. Part of that is the development of walking. We are aware of the huge success of the Great Western Greenway between Westport and Achill Island. Tourism always needs new products. I remind the House that Deputy Robert Dowd’s walking Bill goes to the Dáil tomorrow. I hope the Bill will go to Committee Stage and that the views of the Members of this House who are so keen to promote tourism will be taken into account. It is important that CIE keeps control of the rights of way attaching to the old railway lines and that local authorities conduct their planning procedures to take account of the possibility of those walks.

I recall a splendid television programme on the Howth peninsula by Senator Quinn, where due to An Taisce, the Great Northern Railway and its successors, and the Gaisford-St. Lawrence family, there is a network of walks. That is a sector of the tourism industry we should develop and I am sure we all hope Deputy Dowds's Bill will progress from the Dáil tomorrow into this House.