Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am particularly pleased that Senator Bacik referred to the memorial unveiled in Trinity College because there is a very interesting article in today's "Irishman's Diary" about the lack of memorials in Catholic churches in Ireland. This was not about the political situation, as such. It was primarily because there was no tradition in Catholic churches of such tablets being put up, whereas they were quite abundant in Protestant churches. In both the Church of Ireland and the Methodist churches in my home town of Drumshanbo, there are several tablets commemorating local soldiers who died in the First World War. While I do not know the name of the lady in Trinity College, the reference in the article to Catholic churches having commemorative tablets is a specific reference to St. Mary's on Haddington Road, which has a memorial to 92 Irish men who died in the First World War and one woman, Iza Mahony, who was a volunteer nurse. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam agus na hanamacha eile.

My main reason in rising, apart from that slight diversion, is to ask the Leader whether we could have some debate on homelessness, which has now come centre stage. It looks like the Government is kicking to touch on it. I agree with Fr. McVerry's proposal that a national emergency be declared. Everybody who is involved in helping the homeless has been pointing out increasingly that this crisis is unprecedented. While I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Kelly, is going to fly the flag and fight the good fight, there is an obvious need to pull together the various State agencies involved and that the public, rather than the political family, sees that something practical is being done that will work.

Fr. McVerry made a comparison with the case of foot and mouth disease, where we moved very quickly to address the issue by bringing the various State agencies together. We have also, in this House and the other House, passed emergency legislation from both this Government and the previous one in respect of the banking system. The Government of the day can do it if it wants. It seems that the will is not there and that there is just public relations going on. As this Government gets closer to the election, it is upping the PR machine. I am asking for a debate on this, even if it means the Minister coming before the House to outline what he is doing or not doing, because he made a comment last night on television that there was no difficulty-----