I commend our colleague, Senator Barrett, on his article on Irish Water in The Irish Times. Along with Senator Cullinane's earlier comments, I believe it should be required reading for the Government in light of the apology announced yesterday by the current Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly. As has been pointed out, this House debated the Irish Water Bill without a guillotine and it seems the Government is crying crocodile tears over what should have been done in a legislative framework when in fact it had the opportunity to do it in this House over 17 hours when many amendments were tabled but it chose not to do so. Now they are reaping the whirlwind and it is shame on them.

I echo the comments made about the possibility of the Government agreeing at last to give the vote to the Irish diaspora. This initiative has arisen out of remarks made by the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan, to The Irish Times when he arrived in New York yesterday for a three-day visit during which he will meet the Irish diaspora in various cities in the United States. I read that he may bring a memo to Government in this regard. Notwithstanding what Senator Norris has said about half-term measures, I believe the Irish diaspora would embrace this decision enthusiastically if it were to be taken by the Government, belatedly, and that the vote would be extended to the diaspora for presidential elections. This would be a watershed decision which would lead to a wider debate on how we should address the legitimacy of the Irish diaspora.

I welcome Senator Ó Clochartaigh's comments in this regard. The Leader should allocate time in the coming weeks for a debate on the diaspora and the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Deenihan, should be invited to attend. I do not believe that the Minister of State has come before the Seanad since his appointment.

He has been here.

I apologise if I am wrong in that regard.

The Minister of State would welcome the opportunity to return.

Now that he has outlined specific areas of policy that are affecting the diaspora, it would be opportune if the Minister of State were to come before us in order that we might have an opportunity to discuss matters with him. If we had a debate of even one hour's duration, it would be very welcome.

I echo the comments made by Senator Barrett in respect of RTE's long wave 252 service. This issue has not gone away and RTE has been receiving a voluminous amount of correspondence from members of diaspora, particularly those in the UK, in the two to three weeks since it was first raised. I call on RTE to reverse its decision in respect of the service. A new RTE authority is due to be appointed in the coming months. Two thirds of the members of this authority will be appointed between now and Christmas. I call on these as yet unnamed members - the Government will inform us of their identities in due course - to reverse the decision to which I refer. Even the members of the outgoing authority could seek to reverse it in the coming weeks. There is no doubt that it should be reversed without any further delay.