Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come to the House soon to deal with the cutbacks in funding for non-national and secondary roads in my county and I am sure in other counties? In Wexford, the allocation has been reduced by €279,000 which will have a detrimental effect on a county which has one of the highest levels of non-national roads in the country. Our secondary road allocation has, in effect, been cut by €300,000. It is a false economy because while it may look good as a saving for this year, if the roads are not maintained far greater resources will be spent on them in the future to bring them back to a safe condition. I would like that debate to take place soon.

I concur with all of those Senators who condemned the executions this morning in Indonesia. Capital punishment should be outlawed internationally as a crime. I agree fully with what Senator Bradford has said. This does not relate only to Indonesia; it is practised in many countries. Two of the largest countries who are members of the UN Security Council, the USA and China, systematically use it as part of their punishment regime for crimes.It should be unacceptable and I join with those who condemn it. On a more positive note, I am a board member of the Parliamentarians for Global Action, an international body based in New York, and we are running a campaign to get countries to eradicate capital punishment from their statute books. Each month countries are removing capital punishment from their statute books and Ireland should lend its support this.

The right to life is a fundamental human right and that is why I am appalled to hear Senators talk about euthanasia as being a right. It is no such thing. It is a falsehood to put that forward. Unfortunately, there have been far too many suicides which have caused tremendous grief and trauma to relatives. We all know people to whom it has happened. We need to improve our mental health services and reach out to these distressed people to reduce the number of suicides. This should be the approach we take, rather than to legalise people assisting others to commit suicide.