David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It does not matter when debates are going on as that is defensible because people could be watching from elsewhere and preparing to come in. Only those people who are queuing up to speak are really needed in the Chamber. However, to have the Order of Business attended by one sixth of the membership is very bad.

The Privacy Bill, which I was delighted to see as item No. 3 last week, has dropped down the list. It is now item No. 7. Will the Leader give us some undertaking to demonstrate the Government is serious about the matter of privacy? Many of us feel something should be done about it. Item No. 7 is the Government's Bill and item No. 37 is a Bill on the question of privacy which I took the trouble to draft.

I note that there are 0.02 minutes remaining to me. I wonder how this is calculated. There is another Bill to which I wish to refer, namely, Senator Mary White's Bill on employment, yet there is now 0.01 minutes remaining. This is a device I pioneered a number of years ago, in terms of alerting when there are a couple of minutes remaining to speak but it is over-doing it to indicate as little as 0.01 minutes.

The issue of the number of nurses in the health service is very confusing for the ordinary person. I heard a debate on the wireless yesterday. The interviewer quoted the Minister as saying there was an increase of 700 in the number of nurses. However, Mr. Liam Doran, the head of the INMO, said he was quoting HSE figures and that there was a loss of 200 nurses. How can one make up one's mind when the Minister says there are 700 extra nurses but the trade union representative for nurses is saying there are 200 fewer nurses? Can we have some clarity? Will the Leader ascertain the actual figures and report them to the House?