Dominic Hannigan's blog

Eventually it appears that broadband has been switched on in Stamullen. It´s taken a long time for the network to be updated and it´s great that things are now ready. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for this. It will bring great benefits: improved speeds mean it´s easier to use the web for business and leisure purposes.

I brought up the issue of housing in Meath in the Seanad this week. I mentioned the fact that some local authority estates are waiting years for a refurbishment, noting in particular that Alverno Heights in Laytown has been waiting for a few decades now. My contribution was as part of a debate on Housing in Ireland.

This week I got my first opportunity to introduce a Private Member´s Bill in the Oireachtas. The Labour Party gets about 6 opportunities each year to introduce a Bill. We decided this time to introduce a bill to set up a Witness Protection Programme. Since I am the Seanad Spokesperson on Crime it was my responsibility to introduce and propose the Bill.

I did a bit of reseacrh on how such programmes work worldwide and included a few examples in my speech . The debate was interesting, but I knew fairly early on that it would not succeed. When I said that I hoped the Bill would receive the support from both sides of the house I was eyeballing the Minister of State, Deputy Sean Power. He gave me a grin which more or less said "yeah right".

The Bill was defeated on a roll-call vote by 19 votes for and 28 against.