Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to take up Deputy Mitchell's time, but my observance of this is that we, as Members of the Oireachtas, have spent an inordinate amount of time addressing this issue, as have the media queries, but the process is disjointed. The report was provided to the board of Oberstown and at that point legal advice was sought, which led to further legal advice from the Attorney General, which led to the Minister making a decision based upon the advice, which all of us respect. However, this does not undermine the fact we have a job to do in scrutinising it in a reasonable fashion and the Minister has a job to do. Not being provided with a background on the decisions leaves us all a disjointed position, whereby the Minister is fielding questions elsewhere in the Oireachtas and at this committee. The manner in which it has been approached, and I do not believe this is the fault of the Minister-----