Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I will not be using my five minutes as I am conscious that we are under a great deal of time pressure today. I am also conscious of other Members who have substantial issues they wish to bring to the debate.

While I am here, I will not miss the opportunity to welcome the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, the leader of the Green Party, here. It is the first time that I have seen him in the Senate at the same time as myself. I wish him well. I also wish to flag to him my deep concern about the ramming of legislation through the Houses and, in particular, this Bill. While I acknowledge that it is a short, concise and important Bill, I expect more from him and from the Green Party. I sat for many years at home and or in my office listening to two people up here at the back of the Chamber, namely, the Minister and Deputy Catherine Martin, who is a colleague, a friend and an able and capable politician. I heard the arguments and I played them back yesterday of where these Members were being left isolated and left out of the parliamentary democratic process. These are the Minister's own words not mine and I am just repeating them to him.

I do not have a difficulty supporting the principle of this Bill and I accept its importance but this is not something over which he can stand again. I appeal to him to use this opportunity to go back to his group, which people expect a great deal from and give support to, as I have also, and not to allow a situation where all Stages of legislation are rammed through. It does not sit comfortably with me nor do I believe it does with him. The Minister has that privilege and is the leader of his own party and is in government. He is one leg of the three-legged stool that is holding this Government together. Before I conclude, I ask him to use his important influence in government to put a halt to the abuse of the democratic process that we have had to endure in respect of the passage of the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020 the week before last, over the past week it was the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020 and now it is this Bill. All these have happened on the watch of the Green Party with Ministers of the Green Party. I respectfully ask the Minister to take this point on board and I look forward, perhaps at another time, to having a discussion with him on these matters.