I support my colleague, Senator Whelan, in calling for a debate on the proposed increase in mooring charges. I asked for a debate on this last week. It is scandalous that we are letting Thursdays go to waste and not taking the opportunity to debate many issues. The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland has contacted me because it has not been given much consultation time on these proposed charges. Only 21 one days was given to everyone.

Hundreds of single people and families will be affected by these decisions. I listened to a debate on radio this morning between Senator Whelan and a representative of Waterways Ireland who said the increases could be €4 per year but under the proposed by-laws the increase is ten times the current charge making an increase of up to €3,500 a year. That will drive those people off the canals into the waiting room of the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy O’Sullivan, and onto housing lists, putting further pressure on the system. There is no reason we cannot have a debate tomorrow or next Thursday, before the Minister signs these by-laws.

I support Senator Bacik’s point that the bugging scandal at the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, which is being covered by the media at the moment, be independently investigated. There is a lot of innuendo in the media about the gardaí which is very harmful to the gardaí and I am not sure there is any accuracy in it. I will not rush to judgment because many organisations could have bugged the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. In 1986 or 1987, when the murder of Father Niall Molloy was under investigation, Martin Cahill, one of the biggest criminals in the country, broke into the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, and stole that file, purely to embarrass the gardaí. This matter warrants independent investigation before anybody rushes to judgment.