Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Within two minutes of the relevant Cabinet meeting concluding, a banner welcoming the reopening of Stepaside Garda station was ready. The Minister was photographed with some councillor from the area who is affiliated to him. If he had no idea what was coming, he showed magical powers by producing the banner in the manner in which he did.

I heard Deputy Eamon Ryan on radio this morning discussing the Rugby World Cup 2023 Bill, which will come before the House tomorrow. As the Minister with direct responsibility for this matter, one would expect the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to have the foresight and manners to exercise his duty and allow a committee to discuss the merits of a bid being made on behalf of the people. The bid has major potential but the approach being taken creates grave doubts about the Minister's capability to hold the office to which he has been appointed, let alone interfere in the responsibilities of other Ministers who were given their duties by the Taoiseach.

The way to change the way judicial appointments are made is to hold a referendum to amend the Constitution and remove the constitutional right of the Cabinet to make such appointments. Rather than do this, the Minister is seeking to pull the wool over the eyes of Deputies and citizens about how this is done but he is not codding anybody.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport is wasting precious Government time by having the Government prioritise this Bill at the expense of much more pressing legislation. The Government should detail to the House the reasons for the delay in producing legislation to give effect to many of the recommendations that have emanated from motions and Private Members' Bills and in the pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills by various committees of the House. We have not heard these reasons because the Minister would have us believe that this is the way business is done. This is the how he gives effect to his feigned commitment. The Minister has been 30 years in the Houses of the Oireachtas, yet it has taken 12 months to draft the legislation he claims he has been trying to introduce for such a long time.

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