Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Minister will attend the House and tell us again that it is the Government's constitutional responsibility to decide and we can take it or leave it.

I want to raise some matters with the Minister. There is a long-standing practice and procedure in the House whereby any Member can make a personal statement to the House about a matter which is in the public domain and about which they wish to make some statement of clarification. Yesterday, following the conclusion of Leaders' Questions, the Taoiseach made a statement which amounted to a personal statement on behalf of the Tánaiste and which purported to clarify certain remarks the Tánaiste made in the course of a radio interview and which were the subject of comment in the House. I have a number of questions arising from that statement.

Did the Taoiseach seek the permission of the Ceann Comhairle to make such a statement? There is a requirement in the House that when a personal statement is made, permission is sought from the Ceann Comhairle and the form of the statement is agreed with him. I want to know if that permission was sought. Is it permissible for another Member of the House to make a personal statement on behalf of the Member concerned? In this case, the Taoiseach was effectively making a personal statement on behalf of the Tánaiste and I want to know if that was in order.

The Taoiseach has made a statement to the House on behalf of the Tánaiste and has put on the record of the House a version of the statement and responses made by the Tánaiste in the radio interview concerned which do not correspond to the transcript of the radio interview I read. Will the Tánaiste attend the House and make a personal statement in connection with the interview?

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