I thank the Leader for that information.

I commend all those who stood in the local and European elections last week and those who were elected and commiserate with those who were not successful. It is important that people of all ages, from all backgrounds, all parties and none participate in the democratic process. In particular, I wish our colleagues from all groups in this House who are still waiting for seats to be filled in the European Parliament every success. As an Oireachtas we must have a serious think about the establishment of a permanent electoral commission. That we are the last country in Europe that is still counting votes and trying to fill seats in the European Parliament, which is a very important parliament, shows the system is not fit for purpose. Far be it from me to speak about electronic voting - I am not going there-----

I advise the Senator not to go there.

I will not. What I will say is that we need the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, to come to the House, before he goes to the European Commission, to discuss whether the Seanad can do a job in this regard. We need to move forward with electoral reform. I have often asked for a permanent electoral commission. I finished at a count in one of the electoral wards in Dublin this morning after 76 hours. That is not acceptable. I am not casting any aspersions on the staff there but the process is wrong and we have to look at how we can streamline it.

In the local and European elections, many issues played out. Yesterday, there was a Government mid-term election but I will not speak about certain successes or otherwise of parties or whatever but I will speak about the discretionary medical card issue. Some 55,000 medical cards plus have been removed from people who need them, the sick, the elderly and the young. The issue has been raised time and again here not just by me, but by many colleagues on the Opposition and Government benches. I was surprised at the weekend that certain Ministers appeared to be surprised that this was an issue. My party and its leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, and our health spokesperson, Deputy Billy Kelleher, have been raising the issue and specific cases for two years. I am aware the Leader has endeavoured to have a debate in this House with the Minister for Health. I ask the Leader to ask him again to come to the House. The Taoiseach has indicated there will be a review. Is that a review of a review? What are we going to do? They are all mixed messages. While this is happening, people with terminal illnesses and long-term illnesses and people with special needs and disabilities are losing medical cards. He really needs to come to the House to tell us what he is doing.

I will conclude on one particular issue, that of the multiple sclerosis drug, Fampyra, which I am glad received some public prominence from RTE last week. I raised the issue in the House four months ago. This is a trial drug for multiple sclerosis patients about which people in my area have written to me. It allows them get their mobility back and to go back to work. The HSE and the Department of Health, to which I have written on numerous occasions, continue to say they will not approve it after July for the purposes of the drugs payment scheme. I have sent correspondence to the Department of Health and the HSE with specific cases of people who have been able to go back to work. Do we want these people to be in hospital? This drug costs €240 per month for those patients' independence and quality of life. The Department of Health and the HSE continue to state the HSE assessment process intends to arrive at a decision on the new funding of new medicines that is clinically appropriate, fair and consistent and sustainable.

In these circumstances, why has the HSE not approved the reimbursements of fampridine under the GMS or other community drug schemes? It is not right and it should do so. I ask the Leader to use his good office to raise the matter with the Minister again. I have covered the point, but I cannot understand that decision.

I join Senator Darragh O'Brien in commending all of those who stood as candidates in the local and European elections and congratulate all of those candidates who were successful and commiserate with all of those who were defeated. I agree with him that the way in which the counts have played out has shown again the need for a review of the system of counting votes. I agree also about the need for an electoral commission. I was struck by something Mr. John Bowman said late on one of the nights on RTE about the visible way in which counts are dealt with here and in which transfers are made, and that people see how their votes are going in the PR system. I agree that is a valuable part of the democratic process.

Senator Darragh O'Brien mentioned the length of some of the European counts. In a Dún Laoghaire ward, for example, a count has been adjourned until tomorrow. When one is looking at counts going into a fourth day for some candidates, one is talking about Wednesday or Thursday before people know. We saw candidates in my area being elected at 3.30 a.m. and 4 a.m. That is not an appropriate way to do business. Those who were involved in the counting worked extremely hard, but it is not reasonable to expect people to work under those conditions or to expect candidates to be hanging on for such long hours in count centres. We need to look again, without going to electronic voting, at how we can make our counting more efficient.

I will comment a little further on my party's result. The Labour Party received a clear message from the electorate, as we saw our vote "collapsing" - there is no other word for it. I wish to pay tribute to my former party leader, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, who, as everyone will be aware, resigned yesterday with great dignity and took responsibility for the poor result of the party and the poor showing. People from all sides were respectful of that decision in the commentary since then. We are now in a contest for the leadership in the Labour Party and that will play out. It is certainly also time-----

Is the Senator standing?

Under party rules, Senators are not eligible.

The Senator would make a great leader.

It is time also for renewal of party policy and for a review of our performance more generally, not merely for a change of leadership. That is also something that is universally acknowledged.

It is important the business of government goes on and that we do not see anyone feeling that this is a time that the Government is in any way a lame duck as a result of this. We are going to continue with the business of government. I am glad we are taking the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013 this evening. It is an important Bill which has been a long time in preparation. We are also taking the Companies Bill 2012 next week. The latter is a very important reforming Bill that has been a long time in preparation. It is important that we would progress all of those measures. Once we have a new leader in place within the Labour Party, it is also important that we would have a debate in this House on renewal of the programme for Government, on reviewing the programme for Government and the great progress that has been made on many of the commitments in that, but also on what needs to be done. An electoral commission is one of the matters that is in there. We need also to look at matters such as discretionary medical cards. I agree that this was the huge issue on the doorstep with people fearful of the situation, even if they had not seen a removal of the card after review. The way that has been dealt with has been very problematic. If possible, we need to hold that overarching debate during the month of July.