It is obvious that the Government has a contempt for the Seanad. We have seen it several times attempt to trample all over the rights of the Seanad, one of the institutions of this State. We saw it with the botched referendum campaign. We saw it with the botched by-election campaign. This was one it could not lose but it did, and Senator Craughwell is sitting here today as a consequence of this monumental failure on its part. Now the Government is attempting to blackmail Independent Senators to vote for a Bill which is flawed and which the vast majority of citizens do not want to see passed. It is disgraceful behaviour for Ministers, who are again attempting to subvert the democratic process and the independence of the Seanad, to try to blackmail people by saying that if we do not vote for their flawed Bill, people will end up paying higher charges. It is nonsense. The Government could bring forward emergency legislation to prevent this from happening if it wanted to do so, and that is what it will do if the Seanad, as it should, defeats the Water Services Bill.

I appeal to those Independent Senators who campaigned for the retention of the Seanad and for a Seanad that could be a second check and balance when passing legislation. If the Dáil passes the Water Services Bill against the will of the people, the eyes of the people of this State and those who marched in their tens of thousands will turn to the Seanad. They will be hopeful the Seanad will do what the Dáil refused to do, because the Government has such a big majority. I hope that the Seanad can show its worth, defeat the Government on this Bill and stand up for ordinary citizens. What a day that would be for Seanad Éireann and the citizens of this State. I therefore appeal to people not to be taken in by any blackmail attempts of Ministers and to recognise that we are an independent Chamber in this Oireachtas. We can, as it were, stand on our own two feet. We can and should make our own decisions without interference from any Minister in the Dáil. I hope this will happen, if not this week then next Monday, if we have to sit next Monday as well. I hope the message that we send out to the Government is that we will not be blackmailed and that we will debate the Bill independently of whatever any Minister says or does.

I can assure Senator Cullinane that there will be no shortage of time to debate the Water Services Bill. I have no doubt that people will not be taken in by the huge U-turn his party took in recent weeks on the water issue.

I join the Deputy Leader in extending our sympathies to the families in Australia who lost loved ones yesterday in the most unfortunate hostage situation which occurred there. It was a very worrying day for many Irish people yesterday who have loved ones in Sydney. I had some worrying moments myself. I have a niece who was evacuated from her place of work yesterday, which is located right behind the restaurant in question. We also all wish to remember in our thoughts today all the families of the 100 children in a Pakistani school who are dead as a result of an attack by the Taliban in recent hours. It is a most horrific situation.

Will the Leader arrange a debate in this House next term with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on oil prices and why it is we are not seeing a bigger drop in the price of oil at pumps and in the price of home heating oil, despite the fact that Brent crude oil has dropped below $60 a barrel for the first time since 2009? It hit €59.75 today. Oil prices have taken a 50% plunge since June of this year. We are only seeing relatively minor adjustments at the petrol pumps. We need to have a full debate on the reasons for this. We could also debate all the economic reasons oil prices are dropping so significantly. It is very interesting to see that overnight in Russia, key interest rates increased by 6.5%, bringing interest rates to 17%. There are some people in this House who will remember the bad old days when interest rates were 17% in this country.

Senators Zappone, MacSharry and Cullinane have made some interesting observations on the water debate. The Seanad must do its business, irrespective of what Ministers tell us we should do. We cannot and will not be browbeaten into taking any particular decision. Over 12 months ago the Irish people decided to keep Seanad Éireann, not to have a second axis of Government but to have an independent Chamber for democratic debate and decision-making. Let us act on that and not be browbeaten into taking any particular decisions. I look forward to a substantive debate on substantive amendments to the Water Services Bill 2014 and hope we have the time and space for that.

While I appreciate that this week’s schedule appears rather full, if it is possible and if the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, is available for one hour it would be helpful to have a briefing from him and a short debate on the political developments, or lack of development in Northern Ireland. Last week the all-party and governmental talks did not succeed as we would have wished. It would be helpful to hear from the Minister and make our own views known and make our contributions. The political developments in Northern Ireland and the discussion surrounding them should not be confined to a few political parties in Northern Ireland. They are of interest to every political party on this island and every politician in this House. I am sure the Minister’s diary for the week is busy but if he was available for one hour between now and Friday afternoon we could have a very useful and constructive debate on the Northern Ireland peace process.