Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I will give the Senator the opportunity to correct me, but the person responsible for this is the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and not his officials. The Senator should address his comments to the people with him in the Government, rather than to the people who report to the Minister in the first place.

I support all my colleagues in the call for a debate on the conclusions from the European Council last week. I was lucky enough to play a role in drafting the report that was debated last week. The main conclusion of that report was that the Oireachtas needs to be more relevant and play more of a role in European debates and European policy discussions. There is not a chat show, television programme or political website in the country that has not discussed the decisions made last week in Europe. The following week, no time has been allocated for a discussion on the matter in this House. We should be discussing two significant points. First, we should be given an opportunity to understand the agreements the Government claims to have delivered and ensure that such concessions have been gained in the right areas, as demanded by the Irish people. Second, we should be able to discuss the legal status of those agreements and concessions, which will be of substantial value in the debate that will unfold. Why is such a debate not happening here? Why has time not been provided for such a debate in the schedule for this week? When I raised this point last week, I somewhat angrily asked the Leader if he thought we were all fools because it was clear he did not want to have this discussion in here. I am afraid the reality, which is that he thinks we are all irrelevant to this debate, is somewhat scarier. As bipartisan support will be needed on this issue, discussions should be taking place in this Chamber and elsewhere in the Oireachtas. Yet again, that is not happening.