I ask the House to join me in congratulating a 16 year old young lady, Malala Yousafzai, who was in Dublin last night to receive the Ambassador of Conscience award from Amnesty International. She was shot in the head by the Taliban because she asserted her right to be educated. She should be an example to all young people.

And politicians.

She spoke about how the world could be educated against violence, torture and child labour. She should be an example to all of us. We need to educate young people in schools about the horrors of war, violence and child labour.

I join Senator Bacik in calling for a debate on the horrific situation that continues to evolve in Syria. As a Parliament, we need to keep the pressure on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ensure peace negotiations are accelerated.

On many occasions, with many of my colleagues, I have criticised SUSI, the organisation charged with administering third level education grants.

However, I am impressed that the new manager, Mr. Conroy, and his team appear to have taken on the many issues and problems that had been raised by Oireachtas colleagues and have confidence the system will work much better this year. Senator Conway and I visited its headquarters before the break and the tracking system SUSI has put in place certainly will flag issues and problems at a much earlier date and should ensure that payments and the commitment dates given by SUSI for decisions now will be achieved. Consequently, I wish the new organisation and team at SUSI well this year.

While that is my statement on the positive side, on the negative side I ask the Leader to organise, as a matter of urgency, a discussion with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, on the completely unacceptable length of time it is taking to get decisions and appeals from her Department. It is completely unacceptable that people who are waiting for carer's allowance, who are in vulnerable positions or who are dealing with desperate problems in their lives are being left waiting for months and in some cases for up to a year for a decision through the appeals process. Consequently, I ask the Leader to organise such a debate as a matter of urgency.