Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

There is precedent for this, as I said today on the Order of Business. I have been ten years in this House and for ten years, I have done Estimates, including four years as Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation from 2016 to 2020. I have done Supplementary Estimates for the past six years, including last Wednesday in relation to health. I know what Estimates are and I know how they work. I also know there is precedent for the Chief Whip to take Estimates. It has happened before. I repeat that in 2004 the Minister of State, Mary Hanafin, attended select committee; Deputy Jack Chambers, who was Minister of State at the time, took Director of Public Prosecutions Supplementary Estimates on 30 November 2022; and on Thursday, 23 November 2023, the Chief Whip, Deputy Naughton, took the DPP Supplementary Estimates and a technical Supplementary Estimate for the Department because the Taoiseach was not available. The whole purpose of the meeting here today-----

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