Senator Bacik welcomes National Bike Week

Order of Business

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Senator Ivana Bacik: It is not the case that the constitutional convention will only deal with two issues. Those two issues are to be covered in the first phase of the convention, but a range of other issues is due to be discussed under the auspices of the constitutional convention in the programme for Government and those issues will be considered. Many of us will press hard for the convention to be effective and not limited to the two, relatively uncontroversial, matters that, as Senator O'Brien said, will be dealt with first. I hope to see a strengthened and effective convention in place.

With regard to Seanad reform, I am on record as saying I would favour reform over abolition and I have no issue about that. I hope we will have an opportunity to debate that in the House. I also hope we can debate the constitutional convention here. That should be a two way process.

I welcome the fact that this morning the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, will set out his response to the report of the advisory group on the national forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary school sector. The advisory group report, issued a couple of months ago, makes some important recommendations with regard to ensuring greater recognition of diversity in our primary school system. I hope the Minister will grasp the nettle on this and that he will take up the recommendations set out in the report, which are relatively moderate, but which recognise that it is no longer tenable for 90% of our 3,200 national schools to remain under Catholic patronage and that some changes need to be made to ensure greater accommodation of parental choice where parents wish to see children educated in a multidenominational manner. Currently, only 60 out of 3,200 schools are multidenominational. I have a matter on the Adjournment on this issue.

I welcome national bike week which is on this week and will include a number of interesting events, including a conference in Trinity College on Friday on growing cycling participation and closing the gender gap. Currently, only approximately 25% of cyclists in Dublin are women so we are trying to look at ways to increase the numbers of women cycling. I will participate in that and I also urge colleagues in the Oireachtas to take up the challenge of national bike week and get on their bikes and start cycling. I intend to set up an all-party Oireachtas cycling group to encourage Senators and Deputies to take up cycling.