Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with what my colleague, Senator Bacik, had to say about the possibility of a scoping inquiry being a good idea. I certainly do not believe one should rush into commissions of inquiry until there has been a chance to get greater clarity than has been achieved to date regarding what precisely has been going on. Everyone agrees the reports from whistleblowers and indeed about whistleblowing within the Garda Síochána are extremely concerning.

I wish to raise a parallel issue and welcome Senator Bacik's call for a debate on policing and the work of An Garda Síochána in this regard. Were concerns expressed within the Garda Síochána about the closure of rural Garda stations and the impact that might have on rural crime? Many people are extremely concerned about the capacity of An Garda Síochána to provide people with the security in their lives to which they are entitled, particularly in rural areas. I wish to know whether there was much discussion at local level about the impact of closing Garda stations and whether it was thought by individual gardaí that it would have an impact on their ability to prevent and investigate crime.

I also defend Senator Darragh O'Brien for raising concerns about access to drugs and health services. I was in contact with a family recently about a person who had three times been deemed to require important surgery and had been brought in a bus from County Donegal to a Dublin hospital only to be sent back each time because the surgery could not be organised for that day. That is an appalling way to treat people. I am also very concerned, as one of the 2 million who hold private health insurance, about what it is proposed to do in the future. Are we looking at a situation where 30% of the population will have to subvent health insurance for the other 70%? I believe most people would be happy to do this provided they were guaranteed a quality health service, but it will be another oppressive tax, with no return in necessary health services if matters do not change radically.

I ask that we have the debate which I know some colleagues in the Government parties have requested on sustainable energy. I ask that we have a debate on the need to reassess our aspirations for renewable energy projects. We had a building boom because we rushed headlong into poorly thought out tax reliefs and bad planning policy. Is it possible that the massive wind farms planned for the midlands will see the same process repeated? We have not seen financial viability plans for the scheme to export wind power to the United Kingdom. At the start of February in Spain all subsidised electricity prices were cut in the case of schemes built before 2004. Investors in Spanish wind energy projects were lured into the industry by the Government's promise that it would maintain generous feed-in tariffs for 20 years and now the United Kingdom and Germany are planning to engage in the same process.