Order of Business - 4th July 2006

Order of Business – 4th July 2006
Mr. Norris: I join with my colleagues in calling for an explanation of the Aer Lingus situation. The Minister appeared before the Joint Committee on Transport, and I attended that meeting. There are worries about it. The same, or similar, advisers who were involved in the Eircom situation have been advising on this. It does not look as if we will get a good deal. The public was misled in the run up to this by suggestions that it was legally impossible for the Government to invest in Aer Lingus. We know this is not the case. I would welcome a debate on the matter. Bypassing the Seanad is a bad idea, although it does not surprise me.
I also join with my colleagues in expressing pleasure and satisfaction that the massacre at the Somme was officially commemorated in a dignified and appropriate way. It was also moving that, for the first time, a stamp commemorating this was issued. I would have liked to have been there but because of various factors my invitation did not arrive until Wednesday and it was too late to rearrange my schedule. However I am glad it took place.

I wish to raise the establishment of a heritage council, which is to be welcomed.

I would like to think it would be a vigorous body.

I regret that An Taisce has been excluded-----

Mr. Dooley: About time.

Mr. Norris: I am not, however, altogether surprised, in light of the acerbic remarks of some people in this House, and the Minister. May I remind the interrupters on the other side of the House that the people who attack An Taisce for its reasonable comments on one-off housing and its implications for water and sewerage systems, squeaked about this but did not like it when An Taisce told the truth.
I hope that houses such as Kilmacurragh in Wicklow which was a very beautiful and important Queen Anne house-----

Mr. Kitt: A one-off house.

Mr. Norris: The State owns it through Coillte but has allowed it to collapse. Something perhaps should be done with that. The editorial in The Irish Times states "But the remit of the fine-sounding Irish Heritage Trust is so limited that the institution does not deserve that title." I hope that after a period this will be re-examined and proper and full legislation brought in, through this House, to establish a real and vigorous Irish national trust.

Dr. Mansergh: I also appreciated the dignity of the commemoration of the Battle of the Somme last Saturday where new ground was broken.
I would not take as pessimistic a view as Senator O'Toole of the future of call centres. I read an article in the financial pages of a newspaper from across the water, to the effect that companies there were beginning to rethink the outsourcing of call centres to distant continents because it was not working very satisfactorily. There is much to be said for having call centres closer to the customer base. That argument is by no means over.