Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I watched the debate last night on the monitor in the office and I have been down here for the best part of 45 minutes. It appears we are trying to unscramble eggs but are not making too good a job of it. We are going around in circles time and time again and, as a number of Deputies have said, we find ourselves in a place we do not want to be.

This matter is extremely important, in that it deals with judicial appointments in the future. The manner in which this debate has evolved over the past number of months will have been alarming to people looking in from outside. The Attorney General, who was advising the Government on legislation, described the Bill as a dog's dinner and that was borne out yesterday evening. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, had to have crisis talks on this legislation but it is an awful pity he does not have crisis talks on critical legislation that is needed within his own Department. A second runway at Dublin Airport is under construction but we do not know whether it can be in operation when construction is finished because, for 18 months, the Minister has dithered over who the competent authority was going to be. In the past three months, he called in party representatives over a new competent authority and we are still awaiting legislation on that.

See this speech in context