Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, wish the Taoiseach and Ministers every success in their trips abroad for St. Patrick's Day. It is particularly encouraging that some of cynicism that surrounded these announcements in the past has been somewhat diluted on this occasion. With the modern means of communication, bad news travels as fast, if not faster, than good news so when we have a good news story like St. Patrick's Day and when many countries throughout the world wish to join in a celebration of our heritage, we should take that on board as something very positive which will, hopefully, act as an antidote for some of the bad news which has emanated from this country in the past.

I do not know how other Members feel but when I watched the news on television and saw that many important global sites will be lit up with green lights, one's first reaction could be to say "So what", which is very symbolic in itself, but we know that would not happen if there was not respect for this country and for our heritage. People want to embrace it along with us. In the past, we availed of these trips to have dialogue with business people and others and many good stories came out of that and many jobs came to Ireland as a result of that. Maybe it is a sign of increased maturity as a people that we are now working as a team when it comes to this exercise of Government representatives travelling abroad.

Our wish is that the message sent from Ireland is also good news. There are aspects of the St. Patrick's Day celebrations which do not do us any good. Let us be fair about it. By saying that in the House, I am not providing a news story to spread throughout the world as it is already well known. All of us who have an opportunity to communicate a message to the broader public on what happens on St. Patrick's Day should make the point that one can enjoy oneself but that one does not have to do so in an anti-social way and in a way that impacts negatively on other people, in particular on older people. If we all send that same message abroad, there is a very good possibility that when we come back after St. Patrick's Day and assess what has come out of the celebrations, we will all feel the better for them.