For over ten years and on a regular basis in this House I have raised the issue of Volunteer Thomas Ceannt who is buried in Cork gaol. As we all know, Thomas Ceannt played a very significant role in pursuit of Irish freedom and on the eve of the centenary commemoration of 1916 it would be helpful if the appropriate Minister updated us on the current position. My understanding is that some of the initial obstacles have now been overcome. If we look back on the repatriation of the bodies of the ten volunteers buried in Mountjoy Prison, we all remember with a great sense of affection and pride the manner in which the Irish public responded to that act on that occasion. It is well past the time when Volunteer Thomas Ceannt received a Christian burial and had his body repatriated to a more appropriate location, possibly the family plot in Fermoy. I will be personally very disappointed if months pass by and it is not evident that that will be done, perhaps next year, which would be the proper occasion to do what is right. Volunteer Thomas Ceannt is now the only patriot from that period resting in prison grounds and if there are no difficulties with family or otherwise, it should not be beyond the bounds of possibility that in the coming months we should be able to announce that the right thing will be done, even at this belated stage. I ask the Leader if he would make an inquiry for us in that regard and provide a statement for the House.

I begin by supporting Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú in that regard. Given the week that is in it, it is appropriate that that issue is raised and we do not have to wait until the centenary to commemorate those who sacrificed their own lives in order that we might have independence and freedom. It is hoped that some day their aspirations will be achieved when, together, the island will move forward as a unit.

I support fully what Senator Darragh O'Brien said about the variable interest rate being charged by the banks. I recall talking to some of my colleagues who were in the Cabinet at the time of the crisis in 2008 and they all claim that because of the seriousness of the financial situation they could not allow the banks to collapse at that stage because the economic, fiscal and social fallout would have been of such magnitude that the country would not have recovered, probably for decades. Rescuing the banks has cost the taxpayer and created tremendous problems for individuals but, equally, my colleagues told me that it was their intention that once we got past that emergency they would ensure the citizens of this country, customers and taxpayers, were protected, and there is a real need to do this. The insolvency legislation has not succeeded, which many of us predicted at the time, and as Senator Darragh O'Brien rightly said, with the money markets here cheaper than they have ever been, it should not be the case that people are paying interest rates of 4.5% or 5%. It is not sustainable and it is not good enough, particularly when many of them are in negative equity.

Senator Ivana Bacik called for a debate on school admission policies. I would like to have a debate on that issue because I have consulted people in the education field who tell me that in my own county and across the rest of provincial Ireland there is no problem about enrolment but a perceived problem is being generated to promote a particular ideology, about which we have talked a good deal in the past week. There is a need, perhaps in Dublin, for some refinement where people might have difficulties. Generally, however, people of all denominations and none are accepted into denominational schools, but the effort behind all of this is to try to make all schools non-denominational. That is a mistake because we have seen in other countries that tried to move in that direction that parents and the pupils gravitate to Catholic schools because that is where they get the best education, which is ultimately what parents are interested in.