Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want clarity so that people who wish to engage in that debate will have certainty about the starting time. Last night, the Taoiseach uttered the famous words that many a football manager has been awarded, namely, "I have full confidence". He has full confidence in the Minister of State at the Department of Defence, yet the Defence Forces are falling apart. The Taoiseach threw out a figure of €50 million yesterday that was being invested by the Defence Forces in buying ships, aircraft and hardware with some for pay. The Taoiseach needs to take responsibility for the Department he awarded himself. He is the Minister for Defence, the de facto Minister for Defence, and he cannot abdicate that responsibility to a junior Minister no matter how much he would like to.

Tomorrow morning at 9.30, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence, and it will put forward the situation as it stands. Nobody likes hearing every day of the week about the problems of the Defence Forces but yesterday was an onslaught in all of the media. A retired brigadier general discussed the current situation, the wife of a soldier discussed a situation, while a brave young commandant threw his Sam Brown on the table and said he wants no more. The Taoiseach needs to step up to the plate. It is his Department, not that of the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe.

My colleague, Senator Ardagh, addressed the issue of speech therapy. It is important that we bring the Minister for Health to this House to discuss speech therapy because I am being told that instead of delivering speech therapy on a one-to-one basis with children, we are delivering speech therapy practice or theory to teachers and special needs assistants and asking them to deliver the actual speech therapy to children. It is a highly specialised game, not something that we should try to amateurise, so to speak, over time. The Minister should come to the House to discuss the matter, which I thank Senator Ardagh for raising.