Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will quickly refer to what the Minister said about his absence last week. It has to be acknowledged that the Minister always accepts the invitation when he is invited before this committee. The reason he has been before the joint committee 25 times since his appointment as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is because we have had particularly turbulent times and issues falling under his remit. There have been three strikes and many different issues that warranted his appearing before the committee, so it is not comparing like with like when he speaks about previous Ministers.

We were surprised last week that for the first time, the Minister did not offer an alternative date to appear before the committee and his mere excuse was his workload. It was obvious that he was in the House because he appeared on the monitor, responding to a Topical Issue matter, when we were here. That would only have been decided on that morning. The Minister was witnessed at other locations in the House that morning.