Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have heard the recent news that France has been successful in its bid to secure the Rugby World Cup for 2023. Obviously on behalf of Ireland I am very disappointed at the decision. I do not regret for a second putting forward the bid. Ireland put forward a very good bid and we would have hosted a really good tournament had we had the opportunity to do so. I particularly thank the IRFU, officials in Departments, the GAA and others for their work in putting the bid together. I congratulate France on winning the bid. It will put on a fabulous tournament. It has our congratulations.

The membership of the national security committee is separate to Cabinet committee F. Cabinet committee F involves politicians and the national security committee does not. The membership of Cabinet committee F is public knowledge and is not a secret and certainly not a national security issue. I recall the first meeting of Cabinet committee F had the RTÉ cameras in to pan a shot of the people at the table, which garnered no comment whatsoever at the time yet a tweet has garnered so much comment. It says a lot about some people's terror and fear of modern media that it is perfectly acceptable for the RTÉ cameras to come in and pan a shot of a Cabinet committee meeting, as they have done for decades, and yet a tweet is somehow a threat to national security. It really does demonstrate the terror some people have of modern communications. They just do not understand, do not know what it means, cannot cope and even think it is a threat to national security. Never have I seen a criticism scrape the bottom of the barrel more so than such nonsensical criticism.

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