Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Opposition has made a collective stand on this matter in recent days. Yesterday, all of the Opposition Whips, on behalf of our parties and political groups, made a stand and said that the Minister for Justice must come before the democratically elected Dáil to take questions and answers. We have said this repeatedly. We told the Government that this issue would not go away and that respect must be given to the House. Whenever there is a matter of serious public concern, we expect the Minister of the day to come into the Dáil to make a statement and take questions and answers. We told the Government it had to happen and now it is happening. However, even now, the Government could not do it with good grace. The Minister of State came into the Business Committee meeting today and gave us a fait accompliwhich included five minutes of questions and answers, in real terms, for every group. He knows that, at best, each speaker might get to put one or two questions. We are proud of the Opposition for taking the stand it took in defence of democracy in this State.

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