Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The silence over the last week was unacceptable and unedifying. The Taoiseach's response to my question today was extraordinary. We did not need the judge to tell us we had absolute privilege under Article 15. It is extraordinary that the Taoiseach would come in and say that. The idea that both sides would use his arguments, somehow, in the ensuing court case, is bogus. He was opening hotels and pubs and doing whatever else on that Friday, while the rest of the country was debating this issue. The Taoiseach was deliberately absent, because when he wants to speak about something - whether it is a bottle bank, the launch of a football match, or whatever - he is there to do it. It is unacceptable that he remained so silent on an issue so fundamental to our parliamentary democracy. It was an absence of leadership on the Taoiseach's part.

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