With other colleagues, I join in expressing enormous sympathy to the families and individuals concerned in the tragedy in Berkeley, California, involving Irish students. News is only just coming out now, but it is clearly an appalling tragedy. I thank and commend the Leader for having us stand in silence for one silence, which was a most appropriate way to show our deep commiseration with the families.

I want to raise the issue of the way in which the workers in Clerys have been treated and the sudden closure on Friday. With other colleagues, I was there outside Clerys earlier today to support the staff and concession holders of Clerys. It was a hugely dignified protest. I was delighted to meet some of the staff, particularly some of the many women who had been working there and who were let go so suddenly. They are clearly still very shocked about their treatment, rightly so. It is very important that all of us, on a cross-party basis, should express our concern and outrage at the way in which the staff and concession holders have been treated and the way in which the closure was carried out. In doing so, we should be seeking to put pressure on the consortium that has taken over the store, which is in fact Irish-led, and the actions of which have closed it down. I absolutely support all who do that. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, who has been actively engaged on the issue since the announcement was made on Friday. I again express my commiserations to the staff in particular and to all of those who have lost out, because there are clearly plenty of others who are also at a great loss as a result of this sudden closure. It really is obnoxious treatment of people and that needs to be said.

I welcome the opening yesterday of registration for the free GP care scheme for children under six years. I note the gpvisitcard.ie website was inundated with requests from parents seeking to register their children; clearly, therefore, it is going to be hugely popular, rightly so. It is an enormous advance in health care in that it puts the focus on keeping children healthy and preventing illness in children. It is a major step forward towards a universal health care system. The Bill we are dealing with today on all Stages represents a further step forward. I welcome the opening of registration yesterday.

On a lighter note, I wish a happy Bloomsday to all, particularly to Senator David Norris, who has done so much work for so long on the Joyce issue. I also congratulate Senator Susan O'Keeffe on her work on Yeats2015 because, just in the last few days, we have seen some very important events in Sligo to mark the opening of Yeats2015.

I join others in expressing my shock and sadness at the closure of Clerys department store. I understand it was the first custom-built department store in the world. I always used it and found the staff to be unfailingly courteous. I suppose there was an old-world air about it, apart from the little cloches of hired-out spaces where Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent and the rest of them roosted. There was something lovely and significant about the place, and it is a really iconic building at the heart of O'Connell Street, one of the very few fine buildings left on O'Connell Street.

One wonders about these Gordon Brothers gentlemen. The last time Clerys was taken over by a collection of yanks, they fired a lot of old people out of it without paying their proper redundancy. We should use this opportunity to examine the whole way in which redundancy is used by these people, particularly when there are takeovers. I would love to have an accountant's view of the way in which this was handled. First of all, they bought the place for €1 million plus a €13 million debt which was subsequently run down. They then sold a building, which reduced their entire cost to €11 million, and they are reputed to have sold it on for €29 million. That leaves €18 million in their pockets, yet they are kicking off with their long-term employees. It is an absolute disgrace. I call on Gordon Brothers to honour its obligations to its employees. It is not good enough for American companies to use this country as a kind of offshore hedge fund shopping area, where the natives will sing dumb and put up with whatever is done to them.

I did not know about the meeting and I am sorry Sinn Féin misbehaved, if they did so - I cannot comment as I was not there. This is a very busy day for me, but in my heart I am strongly in solidarity with the Clerys workers and very much hope something can be done for them. I received a letter today from a friend of mine whose partner works in Clerys. He came home from a late-night shift delighted with himself because he had made the company €114,000 that day, yet the next day, he found the place was closed and, the day after that, he was let go without so much as an apology. I find it deeply shocking. If this is capitalism, let us have communism.