I would like to be associated with the good wishes extended to the Irish Examiner. As a former columnist for the paper, I have happy memories of my engagement with its staff.

It is important that the promise of an inquiry into the death of Fr. Niall Molloy is kept. I attended the very informative briefing yesterday, at which Ms Gemma O'Doherty spoke and I said that as a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, I would support the proposal that the committee take up the matter. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, made a promise. I mentioned another promise last week about the Galway hospice. Promises must mean something. A commitment was given and that inquiry should take place. We have spent a lot of time in Ireland talking about miscarriages of justice in other jurisdictions where innocent people went to jail, but it is also a miscarriage of justice when somebody dies and there is no proper investigation and trial. It seems that there is more than a prima facie case to support this claim. Our commitment to and pride in the justice system mean that we must have an inquiry into the matter.

Like many people, I was disturbed to learn about the extent of the pest problem in the three public hospitals in County Galway. The account of mice, flies and rats in Portiuncula Hospital and University College Hospital Galway is helpfully detailed by the Connacht Tribune. It reads like the hold of Noah's Ark and is a real issue. We missed the opportunity during the boom years to develop our hospital infrastructure properly. Now we learn about poor quality food being served in hospitals at a time when people need good nutrition in order to recover, as well as about a pest problem that is linked with hygiene. There is a huge cost incurred in pest control, on which it would be good to hear from the Minister for Health. It is important that public confidence in our hospitals is high. It is not edifying to learn about flies in the kitchen of one hospital and mice in the emergency unit of another. It is not where we should be in the provision of health care in the 21st century.

I, too, support the call for an inquiry into the death of Fr. Niall Molloy, if we are to have total confidence in the justice system. There were glaring difficulties in the case which need to be addressed.

I also support the call by my colleague Senator Colm Burke for the Minister for Health to clarify the position on junior doctors in advance of 1 July. There is obviously a concern that the HSE does not have the matter sufficiently in hand and if we are to have confidence in the health system, we need to address that issue as a matter of urgency.

Earlier in the week I welcomed the increase in the number of visitors to the country and applauded the communities that were doing so much to plan major events for The Gathering. Fáilte Ireland, hotels and restaurants and the hospitality sector generally are doing their best to make the country welcoming, but there is a major blot on the landscape. There is an appalling amount of litter in the countryside, particularly on motorways, which does not project a good image. I call on the local authorities to take the matter in hand. Tidy Towns and village committees are doing tremendous work, but they need the support of local authorities, particularly along the main arterial motorways. It projects a horrible image. As one heads out of Dublin towards Galway, just beyond Heuston Station, for several miles there is an appalling amount of litter along the motorway. I call on the relevant local authority to take the matter in hand because I hope hundreds of thousands of people will visit the country. If we travel to other countries on the Continent or to the United States, we do not see the amount of litter on streets and motorways that we see here. This issue needs to be tackled. I hope the community employment schemes and so on could be used to help tackle this matter because staff numbers in local authorities have reduced significantly in recent years. I ask the Leader to raise this issue with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.