Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Does the Leader of the House agree that there is an urgent need to amend the Order of Business for today to provide for statements by the Minister for Transport concerning the railways? While I acknowledge that there is an Adjournment matter in the name of Senator Mansergh, that is not sufficient. All parties and groupings in the House should be able to put questions and express points of view to the Minister today when a very important meeting of the CIE board is taking place. The Leader is well aware of this issue as she was the one, when Minister, who initiated the expert report on the future of rail services. We have a crazy situation where passenger and freight lines could be lost at a time when we need to build up capacity on the rail system. I urgently ask the Leader to provide time by amending the Order of Business to allow all groupings and Members to contribute to the debate on this important issue and ensure the Minister for Transport comes to the House.