Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know. The trajectory went kind of wrong over the last two weeks. As I said earlier, the timelines are not of the Government’s creation. Covid-19 does not respect our parliamentary schedule. That is the point and because it does not respect our parliamentary schedule, the Government is open to facilitating a debate, although not today. Thursday could be an opportunity if the Business Committee could meet and if that is the desire of the House, but that is a matter for the Business Committee.

On Deputy Ó Ríordáin's point, I have sympathy with the Deputy's position. He has a strong commitment to this issue. He is an advocate for the decriminalisation of drugs and dealing with drugs from a policy perspective more as a health issue than a criminal issue. I will talk to both Ministers and Departments. I do not tend to know what happens in these situations but it is unfortunate that the Deputy has been denied that opportunity this week. As far as we are concerned, these issues should be thrashed out in the open in Parliament. There is no issue with that. I regret that this happened and I will revert to the Deputy.

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