John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

To be fair, the Taoiseach was in the House from 10:30 a.m. until after 1 p.m. today. Other Ministers had commitments and a time of 5 p.m. had been arranged at last night's meeting. Had we tried to bring it forward by several hours, for whatever reason, any attempt to have a full attendance would have experienced difficulties. Other Ministers had other commitments and arrangements. It is not easy to try to organise a full meeting at short notice. A meeting at 5 p.m. was organised at the conclusion of last night's Cabinet meeting. Is the Deputy suggesting we should have brought it back by one or two hours? That was simply not a feasible option.

See this speech in context