I would like to ask the Deputy Leader if she would agree with me on how lucky we are to live in this wonderful country, particularly on a beautiful day like this. We are always being told laughter is the best medicine and this place is a laugh a minute. We are definitely not a banana republic; we are a Java republic and this appears to have given the Minister for Justice and Equality insomnia. Apparently, the police are bugging each other and are listening in all over the place. If one wants to find out what is going on or is any kind of a hacker one can go to the coffee shop located underneath their headquarters and plug into their Wi-Fi - whatever that is - and all the rest of it. I hope that they are using the equipment to listen to the crooks as well.

I had my telephone bugged in the 1970s and it was impossible to get a straight answer out of the then Government. I found it most irritating in the beginning but then I found it very useful because I had a direct line to government which I used. Apparently, the Army is now getting ready to bomb each other in Donegal which is a new revelation and is something to watch out for.

Perhaps to cure his insomnia-----

Does the Senator have a question for the Deputy Leader?

Yes. I am asking her if she agrees with me. The Minister has set up a review which is wonderful. Nobody knows what a review is and it will not do anything. Some judge will get paid some money for it but it is a complete waste of time because the Minister announced the result last night in the Dáil. This is a wonderful country to live in.

We had a splendid debate here yesterday on homophobia. I am very glad that Senator Mullen is here because he did not take part in the debate but wrote a big article, full of the most extraordinary intellectual gymnastics, in the-----

Does the Senator have a question for the Deputy Leader?

Yes. I am asking her if she agrees with me.

The Senator has asked her that question already.

The article was full of intellectual gymnastics and turned the victim into the perpetrator. It contained all of the usual kind of rubbish that comes out of people who have any connection at all with or are contaminated, should I say, by the Iona Institute.

I must say the following with seriousness. Despite all of this bland blather about respectful debate, some of the most hurtful and insensitive remarks - both inside and outside of the House and the amendments tabled by Senator Mullen and some of his colleagues - have wounded, upset and hurt me more than I can say. I do not accept this vicious attempt to restrict debate.

I welcome the Cathaoirleach back from Japan and hope that he had a wonderful time. I wish the same to all of the other Members of this House who travelled. Can the Deputy Leader find out how the trip was composed? I know something about the Japanese. I was invited once, as a Member of the Seanad, and then they found out that it was the Lower House in Japan that had issued the invitation and they would not touch a Senator with a barge pole because it had to be absolutely formal. I said to the ambassador that it was just as well it went that way because if we had snubbed the Japanese politicians they would probably all have had to commit hara-kiri. We are much more relaxed about this sort of thing. I understand that despite the invitation being issued directly to the House, a Member of the Lower House was foisted on the group by the Labour Party. How did that happen? Did the Japanese know about that? It must have been a considerable source of embarrassment.

That is not relevant to the Order of Business today.