Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to clarify again the position regarding the issuing of fixed charge notices to Members of the Oireachtas. Comments have been reported in the media to the effect that TDs are exempt from liability for road traffic offences on their way to or from Dáil Éireann. This assertion is simply incorrect. When the Minister was asked to give a breath test and failed to do so, why was he not brought down to the Garda station - I am not asking that he be brought down in handcuffs like Deputy Clare Daly - and tested to see if he was over the limit, just like everyone else? Why did the Minister mention that he was coming back from Dáil Éireann?

If the Minister intends to morally lecture the rest of us, he should be aware that the soapbox on which he is standing is resting on quicksand that is rapidly disappearing under him. Let us look at the case of Fr. Niall Molloy, a former Roscommon man of the year. When in opposition, the Minister said he was going to help that family. He is not helping them, however, and the family has told me so. The gardaí tell them one thing while the Minister tells them another, and these people are at the end of their tether. The Minister should remember therefore that the soapbox he stood on when in opposition is not on solid ground.

I must put the Minister on notice that I, too, have made a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner about how the Minister released protected information about me into the public realm. However, the Minister probably already knows that because he is their boss. Is that not right? He has probably already chatted to them because information does not stay where it should with the Minister. He moves it around, depending on how it suits him politically.

The most important reason why I think the Minister should step down is because of the way he has treated the whistleblowers. During yesterday's debate, Government TDs came in to tell us about what the Minister did concerning apologies for the Magdalen laundries, et cetera. Let me remind the Minister that if whistleblowers had been listened to in the Magdalen laundries, instead of being chucked back in there by the gardaí, there would have been no need for an apology. The same applies to the way the Minister is treating the whistleblowers now. They are heroes who should be running the Garda Síochána not running away from it. The Minister is chasing them out. He should resign.

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