Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak, if I may, about her good name and her good reputation. I recall sitting in one of those seats at the back of the House when she decided to go into government. That same willingness for public service was, I believe, behind her desire to take on this role, one for which she was eminently qualified. I remember her, in those days before she was well known or in the Dáil or the Seanad, taking a lonely path with her partner into the courts to stand up for equal rights and marriage equality when no one else was willing to do so in a public way. That makes her a very good person and well qualified, to my mind, to be a special envoy on freedom of expression and LGBTQ rights.

There were problems with this process, as the Taoiseach has said and as the Tánaiste acknowledged immediately to us. Yes, we have to call that out, and we did. However, I will make a couple of points. First, as I said, you need Ministers with initiative but you also need a check, and the check is often in the Department. The public service job is to pull up Ministers and say, "Hold on a second here. We have to follow right and due process." As I can see, however, from listening to the Oireachtas committee hearings and elsewhere, the Departments had a similar view to the Minister's in this case; that is, that Ms Zappone would be a good person for this role. It was not the case that the Departments were trying to hold back the Minister; they were working with the Minister to deliver. That is very significant, to my mind, in the context of what took place.

We were surprised, as the Taoiseach said at the time. We do not discuss what goes on in Cabinet, but he was the first to say in Cabinet, as was I - his experience of this and mine are absolutely mirrored - that the process was not correct. We are right to draw attention to that and to investigate it, as the Oireachtas committee has done. However, I will vote confidence not only in the Minister as a person but also in the Government. This is a functioning Government. As the Tánaiste said, where surprises exist you pull the other parties up and say, "Hold on a second here. What is happening?". You also have to have good faith, which does exist. This is a functioning Government which in its first year has put through 62 pieces of legislation. Compare that with any other jurisdiction or any other parliament. Deputy McDonald will understand how dysfunctional government can be. How many pieces of legislation have been put through Stormont in the past year? We have important work to do, including in delivering the housing we are committed to delivering and in delivering fundamental change in our climate action plan and a new national development plan.

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