I alsocongratulate the Ireland cricket team in far away Jamaica. It must go down as one of the greatest sporting wins ever for the country.

I wish the Irish rugby team well at the weekend. Three players from my area will, I hope, play a major part in securing a win in Twickenham.

I was also subjected to violence not in the home but in the school and on the football field in my young days. When one did not pass the ball properly one had to drop one's togs and one was given six or ten of the best across the "you know what" with a cane that length. That was violent and these people should have been locked up. I support the call by Senator Tony Mulcahy and, although I did not attend the committee meeting yesterday, I congratulate him on defining his own issue. It is criminal and nothing else for somebody to turn up at a house, see blood on the floor and say it is a domestic issue and no concern of the Garda. That is unbelievable and it is time domestic violence was criminalised. My peers and I witnessed violence in school and elsewhere outside the school. It is time we did something about it. I hope the violence of yesteryear is not happening today.