Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

I wish to raise a couple of issues. Anything that imposes a charge on the Exchequer can be ruled out of order. Printing the documentation was a charge on the Exchequer. We are a bit selective in that regard.

I want to go back to the contributory pension. My colleague, Senator Boyhan, made a point about the religious institutions, some of which have not yet made the contribution that is expected of them. Let us talk about people who were forced into labour. I visited a farm down the country where there was a rather elderly man working as a farm hand. He was allowed into the farmhouse for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He was also allowed into the house for one bath a week. For the rest of the time, he slept and lived in the barn above the cattle. This was not that terribly long ago. Were those who employed these people, who got these inmates to work, paying PRSI for them or had they got them working fraudulently? Should we call for an investigation to see what contributions were made for the forced labour, of whatever kind? Did they record their labour? Did they pay pay-related social insurance for the people in their institutions? They may not have been paid a wage but a wage came in through the services that they offered. Were the institutions, religious and otherwise, which had these people, and the farmers, cobblers and anybody else who had these workers, employing them fraudulently? If they were, what is the State going to do about it.