Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for ensuring that everyone will have their say. We will not call a vote on the Order of Business today on the basis that many Members are waiting to speak and in order to deal with our business as quickly as possible.

I wish to raise a few issues. Certain publications this morning claim a HSE overrun of some €25 million and that the target for cuts will be the mental health services area and the money set aside for suicide prevention and so on. We produced a document entitled Actions Speak Louder Than Words, which was welcomed by all involved in suicide prevention and even by the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. Sadly, very few recommendations in the document have been implemented thus far. Now a front-page report states that the funding in place for this year for the employment of community health officers and those involved in suicide prevention will only be made contingent on savings. The level of prioritisation being given to this area is not sufficient, frankly. Close to 600 people are under threat of dying in the year ahead as a direct result of suicide. It should not be the case that funding for suicide prevention is contingent on savings. If it were known that two planes were about to crash on a particular day at a particular time, we would do everything possible to prevent it from happening. Senator Gilroy, Senator White and many others have made significant contributions to the debate on this subject. It must not be the first thing to be put on the block when there are overruns.

Yesterday, FLAC and others warned that the mortgage arrears crisis is worsening and very little is being done. The response of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, which the Leader read to the House yesterday, is an abdication of responsibility by the Minister of the day. The people depend on their representatives and on the Government; they depend on the Houses of the Oireachtas to represent them. On the biggest financial crisis facing families throughout the country, to simply to say it is somebody else's problem - that it is for an independent body to deal with - is not good enough.

I will abide by the Cathaoirleach's instructions not to speak on the issue. However, if it is not possible before the end of this term, at the beginning of the next term the House should return early and invite all the senior news editors in the print and broadcast media to be our guests. I am sure Members would be happy to pay to invite them to have lunch here. I ask that they be invited to listen to a debate so that they can hear Members make the case and inform them of what happens in this House. The House needs to be reformed; indeed, the current 60 Members and the many who have gone before us have proposed radical reform of the House. The news editors should be allowed to hear that for themselves.

I very much regret that the campaign on the abolition of the Seanad was launched yesterday by people who are not informed about the facts. Last week, perhaps as a dry run for yesterday's launch, the director of elections for the Government campaign for the abolition of the Seanad, Deputy Richard Bruton participated in a radio debate with me. I asked him whether he knew how many times his Government had amended legislation in the Seanad last year. The answer was silence. I said I would make it easier for him, and asked him how many times he, as Minister, had amended legislation in the Seanad last year. Again, there was silence. With the best of respect, I suggest that people engaged on whatever side of this campaign, when it gets under way, have the manners, decency and courtesy to inform themselves before pontificating about the way they would like to influence the people to vote.