Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I can request that we have a debate.

Senator Craughwell knows that I agree with him on the defence issues he raised.Whenever there are elections, there will always be questions as to who gets coverage and who does not, and inevitably some people will be aggrieved. There is the difficulty of trying to give coverage to everybody. We all have our own views as to who should or should not have coverage. Whether people agree with it or not, RTÉ set out the grounds on which it would invite people onto any of its broadcasts.

I agree with Senator Craughwell on competences of the European Parliament. It is important that we send Members to the European Parliament who understand how the EU operates and can have an impact there. Anybody who is elected will have to join one of the groups within the European Parliament and perhaps in debates in the future it would make more sense that each of the European parliamentary groupings and those who wish to join them should have one representative on each of the programmes so that then a decision can be made among all the candidates who aspire to join whatever group as to who the candidates for a particular programme might happen to be.

Senator Lombard raised the very valid issue of students with dyslexia sitting leaving cert and junior cert exams, an issue he has raised regularly in this House. He is correct that far more allowances are made in higher education for those who have dyslexia. I think it is something we can discuss and raise with the Minister for Education.

Senator Mullen raised the question of climate change. I attended the education committee this morning and there were some very insightful contributions from students, and representatives of the ISSU and USI. I am inclined to agree with the Senator that when it comes to education it should be constructive. I have never favoured a fire-and-brimstone approach to education whether it is in the teaching of climate sustainability or in the teaching of religion.