Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

I second the amendment. I pay tribute to Senator O'Donovan and Senator Mullen for raising this issue. It was most unfortunate of the Minister to respond on Second Stage to what were not criticisms of the Minister with very highly personalised criticisms of Members of this party who spoke in the debate. They dared to exercise their rights as Members of this House. It stuck in my craw, in particular, that the Minister chose to slag me about losing my seat in the Dáil. He lost his seat in the Dáil in 2002 so he knows it is not a nice experience. However, we have been elected to the Seanad. I was delighted to be elected a Member of this House and I have a right and mandate under the Constitution to express concerns.

Nobody in the course of this debate, especially on Second Stage, made the type of personalised comments the Minister made. However, that is par for the course with the Minister, as the RTE reporter, Paul Reynolds, also knows. The Minister made highly derogatory statements about the reporter when he alleged that he did not get his facts right, which is probably the worst thing one could say about a reporter.