Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I put on the record how sad I was to hear about Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin's death this morning. He was an extraordinary musician, a brilliant teacher and an outstanding composer, and he is a great loss to us because he was able to make Irish music like Mozart's music. It is a tremendous loss to the university, his postgraduate students and musical composition in Ireland. We sometimes forget when the great artists or musicians die. They do not fill the pages in the same way that politicians or others do. He is a great loss to all of his students, the arts community and music in Ireland generally. May he rest in peace.

What was said in the Lower House about hospitals and hospital staff by the powers that be was not good. It lacked perception from our leaders to speak like that and I concur with what Senator Devine said about this. People are sitting in here who have worked in the area of health.

I heard the former Senator, John Crown, on the radio and people at the coalface are talking about the fact that we do not have enough staff. It is all very well to ask people to come in at weekends and on evenings handling machines but there is not enough staff.