Bernard Durkan, TD

* To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the steps he will take to ensure the most rapid response possible to queries raised by the public in respect of such issues as reporting crime and antisocial behaviour...

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which progress is being made to address the ongoing issue of pyrite...

To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 367 and 368 of the 16 of October 2012, if she has examined the considerable hardship now caused to single person's due to the differentiation...

To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the extent to which progress is being made to address the ongoing issue of pyrite...

To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 367 and 368 of the 16 of October 2012, if she has examined the considerable hardship now caused to single person's due to the differentiation...

To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which unilaterally or in conjunction with his EU and UN colleagues he can focus worldwide attention on the fate of Malala Yousufzai who was gunned down for having the temerity to raise the question of girls' rights to education...

To ask the Minister for Health his future plans to engage with the Department of Social Protection in order to ensure that sufferers of Fibromyalgia received their entitled payments at the earliest possible point with particular reference to both Departments recognising the illness as a long term illness; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which unilaterally or in conjunction with his EU and UN colleagues he can focus worldwide attention on the fate of Malala Yousufzai who was gunned down for having the temerity to raise the question of girls' rights to education...

I thank my colleague, Deputy Breen, for sharing time in this most important debate. Like other speakers, I compliment the Attorney General and the Government on reaching a clear decision without equivocation and deciding to hold a referendum not because a referendum is absolutely necessary, but because if there was even the slightest possibility of somebody bringing a constitutional challenge to the Supreme Court between now and the passing of legislation, it would be a disaster. I compliment all concerned as it is the correct way to go.

I compliment Deputy Donnelly on bringing this Bill before the House and for giving time for a discussion on a matter of this nature. The Minister has rightly identified the personal insolvency Bill as an important matter, along with mortgage relief. Of all the subjects on which I have spent time since I became a Member, this is the subject I have dealt with most. I agree with the Minister that there are several misconceptions about this issue.