Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I am old enough to remember the centenary of the Irish Famine back in the 1940s. At the time, we asked ourselves how the people of Britain could have allowed so many Irish people to die. Looking back, however, the amount of realistic information the people of Britain had then was tiny in comparison to the knowledge we have now. Senators Ryan and Ó Murchú spoke about the problems in east Africa, including Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. We can see the situation live on television. This morning when I turned on the television I saw live coverage of President Bush's visit to India. I realised that given the knowledge we currently have of what is occurring in other parts of the world, we have no excuse for not taking action on what is happening in east Africa. We can see the dangers that have been so explicitly shown on television. I support what has been said here. We should debate the matter but, in addition, we should get something done about it.

As regards Senator Ulick Burke's call concerning the BMW region, I was embarrassed the other day when I almost ran out of petrol. It was my own fault for letting the fuel run that low.