Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join all my colleagues who have said that it was a very successful visit. We were indeed proud of our President and country and I hope there will be many more such visits.

I wish to ask the Leader two things briefly. I have mentioned on several occasions in the House that mobile telephone coverage has disimproved in recent months. Will the Leader invite the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House to find out what exactly is going on? The coverage has been reduced but the cost of making a call or using a telephone has not. It is nothing to do with more masts being needed because where there was excellent coverage there is now appalling coverage. There is some reason for that and I would like to know it. It is causing considerable difficulty for ordinary citizens and businesses and I am keen to get to the bottom of it once and for all. I call on the Leader to make another attempt to get the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, into the House.

Will the Leader use his good offices to impress upon the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, the need for him to intervene personally in the dispute that started last Monday between the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, ASTI, and the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, regarding the proposed changes to the junior certificate? This dispute is not going to go away and it must be resolved. I am keen to see it resolved sooner rather than later before the people to whom the teachers, the unions and the Minister are there to facilitate and to impart education, namely, the young people, become embroiled in the middle. I call on the Leader to ask the Minister to intervene at an early stage in this dispute in order that it can be resolved.