I do not often pass comment but the condition of the place was not very good. Indeed a number of Deputies brought it to my attention. It is a place for which I have responsibility and it was not a place one would be pleased to have some dignitaries visit. It was in a bad state of repair.

Would it not have been better to have dignitaries walk on clean lino than on royal blue carpeting which shows up every mark as a dusty foot walks across it?

I know, a Cheann Comhairle, you will also look at the places where the Grand Duke did not visit.

Have you inspected the arrangements in Luxembourg, Sir? I can tell the House they would be very very slow to spend £8,000 on new carpeting for a visit by anybody from this country and I know the Luxembourgers?

Might I ask a question that might be expected of me to ask, coming from the constituency that I do? I take it that these carpets were all Irish-made?

(Clare): Munster Carpets. In this House also we have Navan and Donegal carpets.

I understood they were not purchased but taken from somewhere else.

(Clare): They were purchased.

In that case we will have to know where they came from. We will have to put a question down about what is being done to cover the bare space they left behind. I know it is all a bit of a joke, but it is a small symbol of what has gone wrong with this State and the people who run it.

I do not think any Deputy looks upon this as a joke.

It is no joke, but a small symbol of what is happening in the State.