Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I thank Members for their good wishes yesterday in relation to the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. If there is a Seanad tee-shirt I would be glad to wear it.

I have some sympathy with the point made by Senator O'Toole in relation to the Garda Complaints Board. It is shameful that any group of people who set out to encourage other people to report breaches of the law would remain silent when they see some of their colleagues breaking the law. If it happened in Northern Ireland there would be a queue from here to Strasbourg in an effort to have the matter brought before the European Court.

On a more serious point, could the Leader of the House ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform whether he would, at his convenience, come to House to discuss the proposals for the Garda complaints mechanism? I view this as a means of improving the methodology of the House as well. It would be helpful if some means could be found for us to have a discussion with the Minister at the formative stage of the preparation of legislation rather than having to deal with it as a Bill when it is rather hard to change. It would be preferable if we were able to do that on the basis of some sort of statement here rather than having to read about it in newspapers, although I am not against people reading newspapers.