Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There has been much talk in the media in recent days about the resignation of the former Senator and Minister of State, Michael D'Arcy. There is probably a problem because he spoke on finance legislation in the House last week. Leaving that aside, there seems to be no talk at all about the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform sitting on the board of the FAI, an organisation that received many millions of euro from the taxpayer. Surely there is a conflict of interest in that regard. I would like the Leader to organise for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to come to this House to discuss these issues and how they might be handled in the future.

Yesterday, I heard the Taoiseach, the democratically elected leader of this country, refer to the vacant seat that has been created in this House by the resignation of Michael D'Arcy as a Fine Gael seat. How much of an affront to this House is that? How dare the Taoiseach stand in a democratically elected Chamber and talk about a seat being belonging to any political party? I ask my colleagues in Fianna Fáil to have courage and put somebody forward. I ask Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the Green Party to do the same.