I wish to raise a serious issue today. It is one on which I would hope to gain all-party support, namely, the continuing plight of the secretarial assistants who work for each and every one of us in the Seanad. I was shocked to find out when I came here three and a half years ago that their starting salary was as low as €23,000.

That equates to €428 a week which is a pretty abysmal salary. They are represented by my union, SIPTU, which put in a pay claim over a year ago that has sat in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and no progress is being made.

I speak on behalf the staff whom I know, but I suspect it must apply to all of the staff, are an exceptional body of people who work extremely hard. They do, effectively, the same job as personal assistants in the Dáil, by writing speeches, researching and fact-finding. They have not had a pay increase since 2002. Is that not shocking? It is behoves all of us to respect these people and demand action from this Government. I am saying this in a non-party political way because it is in the interests of the Seanad that we pay people properly. To be quite clear, these secretarial assistants are not being paid properly at all; they are being paid poorly. I call on the Minister for Finance to come into the Chamber to debate this issue and I ask the Leader to support this request. This should not be a secondary issue that we put on the back burner. We are all guilty of putting this on the back burner for too long, and I include myself in that.

As a union activist, if I was in their shoes, I would make sure I was a member of the union because SIPTU has negotiating rights. Moreover, if I did not see progress in the coming weeks, I would ballot for industrial action. One action that would grab the Minister for Finance's attention would be a picket line outside the Oireachtas and I would stand with our staff. It should not have to come to that. These are young professionals who work hard. At the moment, they have to do eight hours overtime just to try to make ends meet. A living wage in Dublin is €500 a week and these people are earning €50 less than that each week.

I propose that the Houses of the Oireachtas should be a living wage employer and I hope that is something for which we can have all-party support so that anyone working in these buildings, whether they are cleaning, doing professional work or working in the canteen, can at least earn a living wage. That should be a value to which all of us subscribe. I ask colleagues to join together and support our secretarial staff and make sure they get the pay rise for which they have been waiting, in some cases, for 15 years.

I welcome the Cathaoirleach back. I would be intrigued to see the changes that have taken place since the photograph to which he referred was taken; we all need to be depressed from time to time.

I echo what Senator Gavan said about the remuneration of staff in the Oireachtas. We should be mindful of the issues he has raised.

I welcome to the Gallery fifth class pupils from St. Pius X girls' national school in Terenure - Ms Barron's class - who are guests of Senator Ardagh. I know two of the pupils, Lucy Breen and Joni Long, and I hope they enjoy their tour here today. Also in the Gallery is a young gentleman named Noah Makris who does not attend the girls' national school, for obvious reasons, but who is shortly to go to Carnegie Hall to perform on the double bass. He is a very talented young man. I pay tribute to all of those people.

I will revert to a theme that I mentioned last week. I was listening to the radio last night and learned that the House of Representatives in Washington has adopted legislation to place sanctions on the red Chinese Government in respect of what is happening in Xinjiang province where the Uighurs are being herded into concentration camps and treated in an abominable way. Their human rights are being systematically destroyed, they are being politically brainwashed, told to speak Chinese rather than their native language, and they are, effectively, being kept in until they mend their ways, which means they cease to be Uighur and become more acclimatised as Chinese citizens. I mentioned to the Leader last week that we need to have the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade here to deal with this issue and to outline the Government's attitude to what is happening in the Xinjiang province and what the Government proposes to do at national, international and EU levels. We need to clearly express the condemnation of all right-thinking people about what is happening in red China.

There is considerable unrest in Hong Kong due to the absence of real democracy in the election of the local assembly. There are no elections at all worth talking about in red China. There is one portion of China - Taiwan - where there are free and fair elections and yet we, as a nation, have turned our backs on the area of China where there are free and fair elections, changes of government and freedom of speech for economic reasons, which is shameful. I would like the Minister to come in and explain clearly what Ireland's position is on this absolute undermining of human rights in Xinjiang province.

I welcome the Cathaoirleach back.

I join Senator Gavan and others who raised the pay scale for secretarial assistants. We cannot go into an election without addressing this matter. I do not know if the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, realises the work these people carry out, especially secretarial assistants to Independent Senators who do not have party structure. In such cases, it is just the Senator and a secretarial assistant who provides more than just secretarial assistance. It is an abuse of staff in a way, and I come in here with a considerable amount of guilt every day watching the workload of Sebastian who works in my office. I think of Bill that has come through this House from me, successful policy changes within Departments and amendments that have been successfully won in this Chamber. I might come in and speak on those issues but it is not me who has sat there and worked with the different offices to draft the amendments and worked with the different agencies. The work that I do as a politician is definitely not of more value than the work that is done by the background staff in my office and I join others in calling for a debate on the issue.

I also want to raise a very special football match that is happening tonight. We were talking about a photograph of Senator McDowell from 20 years ago but I am sure he could still manage to put on a pair of runners and come out and join us on the field tonight. Oireachtas staff, politicians and journalists are playing against players from a special programme in Clondalkin called the Breakthrough Programme. The programme recognises that sometimes one needs a masculine route into addressing the issue of mental health. It was supported by Straight Blast Gym, SBG, in the first year and then the FAI and Shamrock Rovers in the second and subsequent years. It has combined sport and psychotherapy through group-led activities and has been a huge success for young, disadvantaged males in the Clondalkin area.

We are playing tonight's game on the Shamrock Rovers academy ground. The FAI cup will be there, courtesy of Shamrock Rovers. We appear to have a full team but things get in the way sometimes. One of our players, Senator Warfield, has just entered the Chamber. I hope that people will attend if they have time later. I have organised food. This is a great initiative and programme and people can come out to help raise its profile. Senator Feighan is looking a bit worried. He is still claiming an injury from three years ago when Kevin Kilbane took him off his feet but we are not going to accept that. We have six politicians saying that they will play in goal. I do not think we will be allowed to have six goalkeeping politicians. If people have a few hours tonight, it would be great to welcome them to Tallaght to be a part of a positive event before Christmas.

I welcome the Cathaoirleach back; it is good to see him back with us. I commend all our colleagues who are taking part in Senator Ruane's football match tonight. It is good to hear about it and may the best team win.

I support Senators McDowell, Gavan and Ruane on the issue they have raised about the pay of secretarial assistants in the Seanad. It is something we have all been aware of and Senator Gavan is correct that we have not been giving it enough attention.

The issue needs to be urgently examined given that the secretarial assistants in the Seanad are on a different pay rate from parliamentary assistants in the Dáil. There is not an equivalent rate for the Seanad. We must consider this matter given the workload and the great work being done by all of the secretarial assistants in the Seanad. Of course, I include in that Ms Ursula Ní Choill who works with me and does an enormous volume of work.

As Senator Gavan said, SIPTU has raised this issue for some time on behalf of the secretarial assistants. I raised this issue with my parliamentary party yesterday and I encourage all Senators to do the same with their own groupings and parties. My party leader, Deputy Brendan Howlin, told me that he has raised the issue on a number of occasions and it is being raised at various levels, particularly at the Sub-Committee on Dáil Reform and so on. All Members need to push this matter within their groupings and as individuals, which I am happy to do. I also join others in calling for a debate, in the first instance, but seeking movement on this issue by the Government.

I join others in calling for a debate on cycling. I have raised the issue on a number of occasions of facilities for cyclists in the Oireachtas. Next week there will be a meeting of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and I have asked for facilities for cyclists to be on its agenda. I ask colleagues to support this issue, particularly to raise it with any of their colleagues who are on the commission. We should have covered cycle facilities in the Oireachtas and we should be seen to encourage cycling instead of an always having an emphasis on car park spaces. Cycle facilities and promoting cycling are important. We must be seen to lead on it for all of the health and environmental reasons that have been raised, which is something that I will continue to do as a regular and committed cyclist.

I refer to the points that Senator McDowell made about China. I was intrigued to hear him speak about red China. We have referred to his age on a number of occasions-----

It is the People's Republic of China.

The term red China seems slightly dated but I jest.

It is not red anymore.

On a more serious note, the Senator will be glad to hear that the issue of human rights abuses in China has been raised on a number of occasions at meetings of the Joint Committee of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence, of which I am a member. We hope to have a meeting on such abuses in the new year. Clearly, the dreadful crackdown on the democracy protests in Hong Kong has been a issue of concern for all of us. There are Irish students in Hong Kong on exchange programmes who have been affected by this. I support the Senator raising this concern.

Finally, I ask the Leader for a debate on hate speech. Yesterday, at a meeting of the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination in Geneva, the deputy Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality is reported to have said that given the recent raising of concerns about speech by different candidates in the by-elections, this State needs to do more on hate speech. We must bring forward legislation to ensure that we have adequate legislation in place to ensure hate speech is adequately tackled in our laws, which is long overdue. The University of Limerick has done a great deal of work on the matter, as well as the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and others. We need to frame the legislation sensitively and clearly to ensure that it is not an undue restriction on freedom of expression.