Corporation tax and cycling
Horkan moved on to welcome higher-than-expected corporation tax and then digressed into comments about cycling and traffic. The point was left unfinished as the next speaker took over.
That may be, a Chathaoirligh. I appreciate that you get advice, no more than I did when I was in the Chair last night for approximately four and a quarter hours on the Finance Bill. I appreciate the advice I get. I will leave it at that but I acknowledge to those looking in on proceedings that it reflects badly on all of us.
On a separate matter, it is fantastic that we have even more corporation tax than expected. It is plugging more holes and more gaps in the system. I wish the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, well in everything he does. He does it pretty well. As Vice Chairman of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, I see him a little bit more than most people, as well as his two Ministers of State who ably help him. To be fair, it is a long time since the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, was in this Chamber himself. He is a very distinguished former Member of this House. I ask the Leader to bring in the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, himself. We see a lot of the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, who is very able, and the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, but it would be helpful to have the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, here, ideally before Christmas but if not then, soon after that.
As somebody who did cycle in this morning, as I regularly do, I think we should have a debate on the benefits to all people of cyclists-----
Comment on this
-----because every cyclist pretty much takes a car off the road. I am sure the odd person does not have a car but most cyclists also have cars and when they cycle they are not driving a car and clogging up the roads for everybody else. Equally, they are hopefully improving their health somewhat, as long as they do not get hit by somebody. Senator Craughwell is not present but he did an exercise recently where he went out on a bike, having not been on one for a long time. I did not cycle for a long time but I have been cycling for the past eight to ten years. Once one gets up the courage to do it, cycling is a fantastic way of getting around Dublin. I encourage everyone in this House, including the Leader, to try cycling, as there are benefits to both the cyclists themselves and everybody else. A debate with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, or his very able Minister of State, Deputy Griffin, would be very helpful.