The right to peaceful protest has been long established going back to Gandhi, Martin Luther King and the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.

It is interesting that all three of those were quite successful in their protests, which were peaceful. It is with regret that I say how disgusted I am with the type of heavy-handed thuggery that went on over the weekend vis-à-vis the virtual kidnapping of the Tánaiste and the abuse the Taoiseach had to put up with. I do not care whether they are members of Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil or any other party, they are the leaders of our country and members of the Cabinet. All Oireachtas Members are entitled to be protected from that kind of behaviour. It appals me to see what is happening. It has become commonplace for Members of the Oireachtas to go among the crowds with megaphones. In fact, they have the greatest megaphone of all; in that they have the immense privilege of being Members of Dáil Éireann where they are one of 166 people who can stand up and fight their corner, but instead they are resorting to street politics and inciting people. It is very revealing that Sinn Féin is now trying to distance itself from that. Its members were experienced agents provocateurs themselves at public rallies. That illustrates how serious the situation has become, in the sense that the scene on the extreme left has become so crowded parties are trying to race each other to the bottom in terms of their behaviour.

To turn to a totally different subject, I wish to raise the problem of Japanese knotweed in the country. This is an invidious plant which has begun to take over in many scenic areas. It is highly aggressive and it is killing many native species, in particular in some of the most scenic tourism areas. I ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to address the problem. He must work with county councils and local community groups on how best to eradicate this insidious plant. In some jurisdictions, for example, in the United Kingdom, they take the problem so seriously that when someone applies for a mortgage the approval includes a compliance clause on Japanese knotweed. Senator Paul Coghlan is aware of the situation long ago with the dreaded rhododendron scourge in Killarney which threatened to take over a beautiful park there. The situation there fades to nothing in comparison with what Japanese knotweed is capable of doing. I urge the Leader to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister. I second the amendment to the Order of Business by the Leader of the Opposition.

I, too, wish to raise the disturbing scenes that took place in Jobstown on Saturday. I agree with the Tánaiste's comments that the protest and antics surrounding it overshadowed the achievements and importance of the day for the graduates who had worked and studied long and hard to get to that point. I was also particularly shocked when looking at the scenes on television on Saturday night by the amount of children that were dragged into the situation. It was no place for children to be involved and I was very disappointed to see so many of them present. As Senator Ned O'Sullivan said, many of the people involved in protests have gone on to become public representatives. Last year when the Taoiseach came to visit Dundalk, my car was attacked and placards were placed on it. The incident shook me up. There was much pushing and abuse was hurled at public representatives as we went about our work.

I accept people have the right to protest and I support peaceful protests, but I am not in favour of people intimidating others or in my case having placards placed on the windscreen of the car, pushing the car and hammering on the roof of the car. Such behaviour is very frightening. On the day in question I was in the car on my own and I had to wait for what felt like an eternity before a garda came along to move the protesters on. Such bullying is totally unacceptable. It leads me to last week's debate in Leinster House on Maíria Cahill. I had the good fortune to sit beside her for most of the debate in the Gallery, and it was fantastic to witness the strength and fortitude she displayed last Wednesday. It was great to see so many public representatives and staff support her. However, I found the questions were not answered. People from political parties spoke about not getting answers. We certainly did not get any answers during the debate last Wednesday, even though it was five hours long.

I call on the Leader to arrange a debate in the Seanad on the allegations regarding sexual abuse by members of the republican movement. That debate should be held as soon as possible because we need and deserve answers, particularly when we see more stories every week about sexual abusers being moved across the Border into our towns. We need to get an answer on that as soon as possible.