Ms Catherine McGuinness:

All the Senators have raised this question and have done an excellent job in bringing it to public attention.

Other Senators mentioned the need for improved child care. That is very important too, but I do not feel I have the time or ability to deal with that whole question here, except to say, obviously, that it is a very important area. If we are asking single mothers, or mothers in families where the mother is the sole carer, to participate in an initiative and suggesting to her that the initiative would help her - and it would help her - to go out and get a job, then we must offer a solution in the way of child care that would enable that to happen.

I agree with what was said about the slowness, sometimes, with which legislation goes through the Oireachtas. In the Law Reform Commission we have spent a lot of time nagging every Minister we could lay our hands on to move things along. I refer, for instance and in particular, to the mental capacity Bill, which I am proud to say was introduced in the Seanad by a former colleague. We need to improve matters. Some of the delay has to do with the way IT is used to draft legislation in the Office of the Attorney General. However, legislation not regarded as politically urgent can be put to one side - through no fault of the people who work in that office, but just because there is a lack of resources. Over the years there has been a tendency to stick to the quill pen instead of the computer. I am probably being unfair to today's people, but that situation lasted for a certain amount of time and resulted in the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill being drafted by the Law Reform Commission, rather than in the normal way. Perhaps the Seanad should ask the Law Reform Commission to complete the drafting process. For instance, there is an enormous draft of the courts Bill, which will try to reform the courts structure and which we provided some years ago. It is just sitting there and nothing is being done about it. The Senators should not encourage me to start nagging because I could go on for too long.

Senator Mary Ann O'Brien mentioned the children's hospital. I would like to see the project moved forward.

Senator Heffernan praised the people who did not send their daughters away. He will understand from what I said before that I understand that view and agree it is important. Yes, we should have memorials to those whom we neglected in their lifetime.

As regards free medical care for all children, the present Minister for Health is trying to move towards providing free medical care - or at least free GP care - for children under six years of age. Obviously I would like to see universal health care provided, and I hope that people will work towards that goal.

With regards the question of alcohol sponsorship of football or sports events generally, I would like to see this type of sponsorship brought to an end and there is a movement towards doing so.

Whether we will get social and cultural rights into the Constitution is a very big question. As Senators will know, the parts of the Constitution that refer to social and cultural rights are clearly stated as being non-justiciable. In other words, the courts cannot make decisions on whether those rights, or their limits, are constitutional. The question is difficult. A lot can depend on the views held by the judges of the Supreme Court at the time when such a question comes up. It is interesting to see that the Constitutional Court of South Africa has embarked on dealing with social and cultural rights of that sort. It has made some very interesting judgments, including one in particular on the right to housing or for a person to be housed. The court took the approach that it could not or was not in a position to say to the government to build house A in place B or to give detailed instructions, but it could say that the government must have a scheme or policy for providing housing and that the policy must recognise social rights. Even if we approached the matter at that level it would be an advance, but first one would have to take the right cases before bringing the matter before the court.

I shall end by thanking Senators again for their great interest and for all their very interesting questions. Unfortunately, I cannot solve all the problems of the world.