Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Darragh O'Brien raised the question regarding the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter. The Minister went into the other House yesterday and explained the position in his statement. With regard to the points that have been made by the Senator regarding the Minister's presence in this House, I can assure him that the Minister has practically attended every justice Bill, and there have been many such Bills. Deputy Shatter himself has come in here to deal with the vast majority of those Bills, and that should be acknowledged.

Senator Darragh O'Brien specifically mentioned a Private Members' motion. If he can recall, his party had two Private Members' slots during February following a swop with another group. The Senator is referring to the debate on 27 February which, he will recall, was similar to the debate of his party on 6 February, three weeks earlier. During that debate, the Minister came into this House and answered all the questions and the allegations that were made against him for two and a half hours on Private Members' business. As the Senator will be aware, it is normal that two hours are allocated for Private Members' business. The Minister had come in here three weeks previously and answered all the questions. It is most unfair for the Senator to suggest that he did not attend the House personally to deal with a matter which was dealt with three weeks previously.