Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate the comments of my two colleagues on the Business Committee, Deputies Kelly and Mac Lochlainn. We had no communication either. I made contact with the Clerk to try to find out what was going on because I was reading on Twitter about what was happening in the House. It is not good enough.

I accept that we have three Airí Stáit in the Chamber from the Department of Health. I appreciate and understand that. I cannot understand, however, why we could not have the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who I presume socially distanced at Cabinet and who was not there for more than two hours because he did not go to the press conference afterwards. If the Aire comes to the House this evening, it will be the fourth Minister in three months from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine accountable to this House. Surely a mechanism could be found where the Minister could be in one of the committee rooms to answer parliamentary questions in the House, rather than us having to wait for another set of questions, which will be after the budget, to hear anything from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine himself.

See this speech in context