Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise two issues, the first of which relates to yesterday's charade in the House when we were dealing with statements on climate action and low-carbon development. There is a statutory obligation on Ministers to present their plans to the House and while they walked in, they actually ran out. Apart from the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, none stayed to listen. That was an insult to this House. I have thought about this long and hard and have chatted with a lot of people who feel the same about the matter this morning. The Ministers and Ministers of State did not come here voluntarily; they are obliged by law to present their annual national transition statements to the House. While I will hold my fire on the matter for the moment, I ask the Deputy Leader to invite all of the relevant Ministers and Ministers of State to come back to the House so that we can hold them to account. They read out statements yesterday but there was not a lot in most of them. It seemed to be, for many of them, a box-ticking exercise. I respectfully ask the Deputy Leader to contact the lead Minister, Deputy Bruton, regarding this matter. I would also like to see all of the other Ministers and Ministers of State back in the House, listening to and engaging with Members.