Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to the comments on Childline. There is little doubt that the service requires attention. Although Childline does not cost much, it may be suspended for a long period next year. The issue could be easily resolved.

The House had a good debate last week on prescription drugs. If figures published in Britain today had been available, the debate would have been even better, especially if the figures correspond to the position in Ireland. They show that half of people in the United Kingdom take a prescription drug every day and one in five British people take free prescription drugs every day. The danger is the lack of certainty about whether the issue can be controlled.

One aspect of the discussion on medicines that the House did not have an opportunity to raise last week was the problem of misprescribing as a result of poor handwriting on prescriptions from doctors, who are not known for good handwriting. In some parts of the world, it is estimated that one in 15 prescriptions is incorrectly dispensed because the medicines are misidentified in the pharmacy. Bar codes have been introduced to avoid this problem. It is worthwhile to draw the Minister's attention to this issue, although I doubt we will have another debate on it so soon after last week's discussion.

On Palestine, I was concerned about a newspaper report mistakenly indicating that last month's Seanad vote on recognition of Palestine was unanimous. Some Senators indicated that we should take the rights of Israel into account and provide some balance on the issue. It is necessary that I confirm this was the case. While the House should by all means identify Palestine as having a right to exist, the Palestinians should identify that Israel also has a right to exist. When one reads about what took place in Northern Ireland and how long it took to reach agreement there - work is still being done on the issue - it serves as a reminder of how difficult it is to reach agreement in disputed areas. Let us ensure we get the balance right.