David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also noted there are, once again, two measures to go through without debate. I am not criticising the procedure and we have had an explanation from Senator Bacik, but it does seem to point out how we need to think very carefully before we take sole responsibility for taking all of this material on board. If we fail in this, it will be held against us, so I believe it is dangerous. Every day that goes by highlights this, as far as I am concerned.

I am also a little concerned at the lack of coverage this House is continuing to receive. Basically, only one newspaper covered it last week and, as far as I could see during a scan of the newspaper, the only thing that was covered was a ministerial speech which was redacted. There was no contribution from any Member of the Seanad, so we might as well not have been here. The Minister might have just issued the speech directly to the newspaper and had it redacted. I do not believe that is proper coverage.

I want to also raise the issue of the Battle of Clontarf, the 1,000th anniversary of which is coming up next year. I have been contacted by the head of the O'Brien clan, The O'Brien, Conor O'Brien, Baron Inchiquin, and a number of other people who are concerned that this very historic matter should not go unremarked. We will be extensively marking the commencement of the tragedy of the First World War but the Battle of Clontarf was one of the most significant dates in Irish history and we still have living descendants of the people who fought there. It would be immensely important for tourism and if we could extend the idea of The Gathering and bring people back here for some kind of celebration, including The O'Brien himself and perhaps representatives of the Scandinavian monarchies given the Vikings were heavily involved as well, this would also be very useful. I ask that the Leader would be kind enough to contact the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, who has already been contacted in this regard. While there is general enthusiasm, the people involved in organising these events have found difficulty in getting access to Fáilte Ireland websites and so on.

Finally, I note we had an important debate on the Social Welfare Bill last week. I am not sure there was any great coverage of it but one of the things a number of us pointed out to the Minister was that there is a very sizeable gap between the number of jobs or placements available for jobseekers and the number of people who are going to be unemployed. This was in the context of a serious cutback to €100 a week for those aged under 25. Today, The Irish Times has uncovered a document from within the Department of Social Protection which appears to confirm everything we said, namely, there are less than half the number of places for young people. Instead of fudging these issues in Parliament, we should face them directly and honestly and try to address them.