The Order of Business is No. 1, motion of referral of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2013 to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to be taken without debate at the conclusion of the Order of Business; No. 2, Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013 – Committee Stage (resumed), to be taken at the conclusion of No. 1 and adjourned not later than 5.30 p.m.; and No. 3, Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013 - Committee Stage, to be taken at 5.30 p.m.

I extend my deepest sympathy and that of the House to our colleague, Senator Eamonn Coghlan, on the death of his mother whose funeral took place this morning and was attended by many Members.

I extend good wishes to our colleague, Senator Jimmy Harte, who is seriously ill in hospital. I also extend our good wishes to his family at this most difficult time.

I shall finish on a good note. We are delighted to see the return of the Clerk Assistant, Ms Jody Blake, who has been absent for quite some time owing to illness.

Hear, hear.

We are delighted to see her back.

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I extend sympathy to Senator Eamonn Coghlan on the passing of his mother. I am delighted to see Ms Jody Blake here today. I am sure that she will be the judge of whether she has returned to a revised, rejuvenated and reformed Seanad. I am sure that we missed her more than she missed us. It is great to see her back.

On behalf of my group, my colleagues and I wish Senator Jimmy Harte a speedy recovery. All of us consider him to be a good friend and hope that everything goes well for him. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family at this time. We hope and are sure that he will make a very speedy recovery. We have thought about him since the news broke last Friday night and I ask the Labour Party leader to pass on our best wishes. Our Whip has been in touch with the Government side already and it goes without saying that any arrangements that need to be made vis-à-vis voting can be taken as a given. We hope the Senator will be back with us very soon.

I shall turn to today's business. With regard to No. 1, it might be good to debate the motion when it returns from committee. I have raised the issue regarding betting tax with the Leader.

That is a very important sector for us also but the horse and greyhound racing fund regulations should be debated in the House when the Leader believes the time is appropriate.

Does the Leader have a revised date for the publication of the Health Service Executive service plan? There have been two extensions to the publication of the service plan that the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, is to bring before the Oireachtas with regard to the health budget for next year. I was particularly concerned to read that the figure we were told initially was €666 million. Some say the figure is €1 billion but reports at the weekend indicate it is €1.2 billion. I hope we will not have a scenario where the service plan is published the day before or the day the House goes into recess, but that is what I am starting to believe. It seems this plan will be published when neither House is sitting. If that is the case, the Leader should give a commitment that this House will be recalled to discuss that specific item. He has given a commitment, which I welcome, that when the HSE service plan is published a full debate will take place in the House with the Minister for Health present but I do not want the Minister to publish it on 20 December when Members have left for the Christmas recess. It is too important for that to happen. The Leader might indicate if he has an update on when the plan will be published.

Last week I raised with the Leader the issue of the welcome ECB rate cut that sees the rate at a record low level of 0.25%. I asked the Leader whether the Government had any contact with the banks, which the taxpayers support, about passing on that rate cut to variable rate customers who are struggling. Many customers in arrears, and those just outside being in arrears, need this rate cut to be passed on. I was astonished to hear at the time that Government had not made any contact with AIB, Bank of Ireland, the ICS Building Society or the EBS. I ask that in the coming week a commitment be given that Government must outline its view on that. What surprises me is that a view is not being given by the Minister for Finance. He is not giving any direction. I am not asking him to micromanage the banks but I am asking him to state clearly whether the Government believes this 0.25% rate cut should be passed on to variable rate customers. I am not asking him to direct Bank of Ireland, AIB or the other two mortgage lenders, the ICS and the EBS, to do that. I am asking him for his view. It would be very difficult for the banks to ignore a statement from the Minister for Finance that he believes the rate cut should be passed on but, more importantly, it would give an indication to those customers struggling on high variable rates that the Government actually does care. I ask the Leader to inquire of the Minister if he would make a statement on the Government position on the 0.25% rate cut.

On behalf of the Labour Party group, I thank colleagues for their good wishes expressed to our friend and colleague, Senator Jimmy Harte, having sustained injuries on Friday night. It came as a terrible shock to all of us in the Labour Party group and I know to all Members in the House. We very much appreciate their thoughts, good wishes and co-operation at this time. We have been in touch already with the Fianna Fáil Whip about that. All of us extend our good wishes, our love and our support to Jimmy and his family at this difficult time. Everyone shares in the hope for a speedy recovery.

I extend condolences to our colleague, Senator Eamonn Coghlan, on the death of his mother.

On a more positive note, I welcome back Jody Blake. It is lovely to have her back with us and to have that positive news today. She was missed very much and I am sure the clerking role will be much easier for the Clerk of the Seanad now that she is back. It is great to see her.

I welcome the decision announced by the Government last week in the Dáil that we will exit the troika programme with a clean break without availing of the additional credit facility that had been speculated about. We have had a very favourable reaction since to that decision. It was an important decision the Government made. We have not had an opportunity to comment on it in this House yet, but I very much welcome that the announcement was made in the Dáil on Thursday morning. That was hugely important as a symbol of the Government's intent to ensure that the Dáil and the Legislature is kept alongside in that regard.

I look forward to further debate on this in due course, particularly around 15 December when we do finally exit the programme.

I also welcome the good news of the State visit of President Michael D. Higgins to Britain. It is timely and it is good to hear that it will happen and that he will make an address to the joint House of Commons and House of Lords. It will be a very important and historic event to which we all look forward.

I would like the Leader to arrange a debate on white collar crime in light of the verdict announced yesterday in what has been described as the biggest white collar trial in the history of the State, that of Mr. Byrne. Some new legislative measures have been introduced in recent years to combat white collar crime. The Government has promised to legislate for cyber crime. These are two forms of crime that the criminal justice system has neglected. I would like us to debate white collar and cyber crime in the new year and the most appropriate legislation by which we can tackle these new and serious challenges.