Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is the Senator's entitlement to bring a proposal on the Order of Business any day he wants to do so. The Minister is in Japan this week so he is not available. As is the case every week on the conclusion of the Order of Business, we go through the requests and balance them with the need for legislation to be passed. If a Minister is available we ask him or her to come to the House. To help the Senator, he might receive a more expeditious response by tabling a Commencement Matter. That is the point I was going to make. In the Lower House this week, a number of Members tabled a Topical Issue on this matter. I am trying to be helpful to the Senator. I have no idea what the Minister's diary looks like for next week or the week after but I will endeavour to have him come to the House. This is the point I am making.

Senators Craughwell and Colm Burke raised the issue of the Defence Forces. To be fair, last night at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting Senator McFadden raised the matter as did several other members who supported her. All of us are committed to having Defence Forces that are paid well, looked after and valued. Senator Craughwell does not have a capacity in this. We all share this desire and goal. The Taoiseach has stated that the report to which the Senator referred will be before the Government soon.