I also wish colleagues a happy St. Patrick’s Day, given that it falls this weekend. I agree that it is important that Ministers travel abroad to represent Ireland across the world to ensure that we can get the maximum benefit for this country in terms of tourism and support for the economy at this time. It should be a great weekend at home in terms of people travelling here and everyone going to the parades and the events. I hope the sun shines on the parade for everyone.

I thank colleagues on both sides of the House for their support for the Bill I proposed on behalf of the Labour Party Senators group last night – the Employment Equality (Amendment) (No.2) Bill. We are delighted the Bill has received Government support and will now move forward to Committee Stage. I hope that can be done quickly. We said as much to the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, last night. I again acknowledge the support of all colleagues who spoke in favour of the Bill, including Fianna Fáil Senators. Senator Averil Power has a strong track record on the issue, as does Senator Marc MacSharry. Fine Gael Senators Colm Burke and Jim D’Arcy also spoke in support of the Bill and I did not get an opportunity to thank them last night. I appreciate their support and that of my Labour Party colleagues. The Bill was ably seconded by Senator Mary Moran and Senator Susan O’Keeffe also spoke. The Bill is important as it will challenge for the first time section 37 of the Employment Equality Act which gives an opt-out to religious-run institutions against the normal anti-discrimination law provision. The Seanad Visitors Gallery was full last night of people from various groups from the trade union movement, human rights and LGBT groups which have very much welcomed the passage of the Bill on Second Stage. As other colleagues such as Senators Sean D. Barrett and David Norris acknowledged, it confirms the importance of the Seanad as a forum where we can introduce Bills and achieve Government support for them and thereby result in changes in the law that benefit society. That is most important.

I ask the Leader if we could have a debate at some stage in the future on the incorporation of economic, social and cultural rights in the Constitution. I will speak later this morning at an event being organised by Amnesty International in conjunction with a number of other NGOs, which will be chaired by former Senator Catherine McGuinness. It is focused on the issue of the incorporation of social, economic and cultural rights into the Constitution. The Labour Party has a strong policy on the issue and last year in the Dáil it introduced a Private Members’ Bill to incorporate economic, social and cultural rights into the Constitution. It is a topic to which we could return in this House and deal with although it may well come up for discussion at the Constitutional Convention later in the year. It might be helpful to have a debate in this House at some point during this year in advance of the Constitutional Convention considering whether it might wish to consider the issue at the end of its 12 months in operation in December.