Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Senator said it. We do not want to see the Seanad cleared for any reason.

I commend the members of the banking inquiry. Like everybody else, I am looking forward to the question and answer session with Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet this afternoon. I am delighted, as we all should be, that the members of the banking inquiry will get an opportunity to question Mr. Trichet on his role in the events surrounding the bank guarantee and subsequent bailout. That is very important. Anyone who heard Senator Susan O'Keeffe on the radio this morning discussing this will understand why the format being adopted is being adopted. It is very welcome.I join with other colleagues who spoke yesterday to condemn the executions for drugs offences of a number of individuals which were carried out in Indonesia, and I also condemn capital punishment more generally. Ireland has been a leader on this, as has the Council of Europe. It is very distressing to see executions continue to be carried out not only in Indonesia but across some US states and in Russia and China, the other countries in which we see the largest numbers of people executed.

I ask the Leader for a debate on enhancing the amenities of Dublin as a capital of culture and a city to which people are drawn from all over the world. I ask for that in keeping with a number of developments. There have been a good deal of resources devoted by the Government to developing Dublin's amenities, particularly in the lead up to the centenary commemorations next year. I am particularly pleased to see reports in today's newspaper about 14 Henrietta Street, which will be opened next year as a museum of tenement life and to which €1.5 million has been allocated. I know Senator Norris will have a particular interest in this.